Under the Same Stars
by Peixoto
Summary: This is a sequel to the Hogwarts throught Jessica Thompson eyes. I will start couple years after the Marauders left school and will take it all the way to the end of Order of the Phoenix. I recomend you read HTJTE before starting this one. Have fun!
1. Halloween Heartache

**Under the Same Stars**

As Jessica sat on her cabin alone, she was looking at the sky through all the small openings on the poorly built roof. The walls were all made of clay and wood, with palm-leaf roof, it was all falling apart and there were openings all around her, both in the roof and the walls. Her bed was made of straw, every inch of her body hurt from all the badly slept nights.

Her thoughts were all the way home now, how everybody was doing and what had changed since she left. It's late October now, and her third anniversary away from home. She had eight jobs she needed to get done and she got through them pretty quickly, when she got to her last mission she still had six months to go before completing her two years mark, but the unexpected happened and she's been working on the same case for a year and a half, to add to the pain she was not even close to solving this one out.

She was in the Amazons rainforest, working under cover as a nurse trying to figure out what did the unusual wounds in the natives. She had no luck so far, all of them seemed too scared to say anything and when someone did decide to tell her, it was always to same story, vampire bats.

The story didn't really make sense, since Jessica researched the bats and found out that the bats used its sharp teeth to scoop out a small amount of its victim's skin and the wounds she was dealing with were much bigger than that, some of the victims didn't even survive, and people would go missing and the same story was told over and over again, vampire bats took them. She tried to get to their minds lots of times to find out the truth but she didn't find anything, seemed like someone modified their memories, and for that reason she knew there were magic involved.

All of this was really frustrating to Jessica, she wanted to go back home to her family, friends, and most of all Sirius. All of a sudden cold breeze came from all directions, she realized she dozed off, and looked at the sky and it was black now, all the stars were gone, she felt chills. First thing that came to her mind was to get her wand and put a spell on her cabin, just in case it rained, not letting the water come in.

She was ready to do it so, but she saw through the cracks on her walls that someone was watching her, he was just a few inches outside her cabin, she set the wand down on the table, and went to make some tea, hoping he would leave soon.

She was way to used to the same man watching her every move. First time she noticed him, he was hiding behind the bushes from far away, and he came closer and closer as the days went by, now he was always close, sometimes he would go to the window and stay there until Jessica got tired of him and went to sleep. The staring didn't bug her as much, the only fear she had was that he saw her doing magic, she was more careful now that she knew he is always there, but in the beginning she might of done something he was not supposed to see.

It was getting cold now, she decided to go lay down to warm up a bit, but before she did she heard a song, echoing loud from the distance, she recognized it, it sounded like a phoenix. She went to the door and considered before opening it, but opened it anyway to take a closer look, trying to find where the song was coming from, she looked at the men, and for her surprise he was not looking at her, but at the wand she left on top of the table.

_Go inside and get the wand, _was the first thought on her mind, as she turned around to go back inside but she heard the phoenix again, this time louder, she knew it was close, the next moment the bird flew by her and went inside stopping on her bed.

She went inside, leaving the door open, she knew at once that it was Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, and it was holding a letter with its beak. Her heart was racing now, she knew it couldn't be good news. She opened the envelope and recognized Dumbledore's hand writing.

_Dear Jessica, _

_I am afraid I come with dreadful news. _  
_Early this evening our worse fears came true._  
_Voldemort found the place where your dear friends_  
_Lily and James, were hiding. _  
_He went for them, and_  
_I am sorry to be the one that tells you,_  
_but he murdered both, _  
_the only one that survived was their, _  
_one year old son, Harry._  
_I talked with Atticus Brisson and he agrees, _  
_that you should come back at once._  
_I must warn you, _  
_we have reasons to believe you are in danger,_  
_so I ask be careful and watchful. _  
_It will be safer if you use muggle _  
_ways to come back. _  
_Do not use magic. _  
_Your Dad is arranging a way for you to come home,_  
_but you will need to call_  
_him for instructions._  
_I will tell you more when I see you. _  
_One last word of caution, _  
_don't trust anybody, _  
_we witnessed betrayal tonight. _  
_Your boss is sending some people to get _  
_your luggage, pack before you leave _  
_but just take the essentials with you._

She knew getting a letters could not be good news, but she never dreamed it would be that bad. With tears running down her cheek she reached for her trunk under the bed, shaking beyond normal. She turned around to start packing her heart stopped with surprise, standing in front of her and holding her wand was the native man that always watched her.

"What are you doing?" she asked at once not even thinking on the possibility he would not understand her. "Give me back my wand."

He stared at her and did nothing.

"Give it to me." She insisted. "Do you understand me?"

After a few seconds he nodded and put the wand back on the table, Jessica quickly went over to get the wand and with Dumbledore's letter on mind she pointed it at him.

"What do you want?" She asked shakily, still crying a bit.

"You do magic?" he said.

"Do you speak English?" she was surprised.

"Doctor teach me, few years back. You use that to do magic?" He asked pointing at the wand.

"I don't have time for this." She turned around and started getting everything she could find and sticking it in her trunk.

"Me see you do magic before," he said again trying to get her attention, but he failed, the only thing it worked for was to remind Jessica to modify his memory before she left.

Fawkes flew away when she finally closed her trunk, she pointed her wand at the man but he spoke before she could cast any spells.

"Me do magic too." She froze and was ready to ignore what he said ,when he looked at an apple on top of the table and made it levitated and move towards her a few inches before it fell.

The wand was lowered at once, she was amazed by it.

"We never had any records of a wizard born in this area," she finally said putting her wand back on her pocket. "I need help, can you help me?"

He nodded.

"I need a telephone do you know where I can find one right now?"

He nodded again and went for the door. She followed.

Jessica never went outside in the dark before, it was very scary. He went right into the forest and she followed, after a few minutes they got to the village where Jessica worked, she usually took the road to work and I took her a forty minute walk to get there.

The man stopped in front of a library, it was really small, one room, with no more than one hundred books.

"I can't go in there, it's already closed." But he ignored her, walked to a window and very carefully opened it. He held it open, without thinking twice she climbed inside, but he stayed outside holding the window and looking around. Since she knew where the phone was she went straight to it, before dialing a felling of guilt came upon her for calling London from that phone.

The telephone barely rang when her dad picked up. "Hello, Jess is that you?"

"Yes dad, I don't have a lot of time."

"It's okay, I arranged for a friend of mine to go pick you up and he is on his way. You will have to go meet him at the airport."

"Okay," she replied but had no idea how she would manage to do that, since the one lane airport was across the lake. "Dad, what is going on? Why am I in danger?"

"Sweetie I really can't say anything, but you will be here in the morning and I will tell you…" he stopped talking and she heard a loud bang on the background, she was sure someone apparated there.

"Who is that dad?" But he never replied the phone went dead. Panic came over her, first thing that came to her mind was to apparate at her house, but Dumbledore's words came to her mind again: _no magic, use only muggles way_.

Now more than ever she wanted to get home, she went outside and helped the native guy close the window carefully.

"I need to get to the airport," but the man stared at her like he didn't understand. "Plane," she tried again, trying to make a plane with her hands, this time he understood and he was looking at the lake she had to cross to get there. "How can I get across that, this time at night?"

"Me take you," he said walking to a small canoe.

"No you won't, is too dangerous."

"Me have something you want," he insisted.

"Really? And what is that?"

"The bites, my people have, me know where they come from," he was already pushing the canoe to the lake and without hesitating she helped him. It was the first time someone offered to talk about it, and she ready to hear it.

As they started the cross, she opened her backpack and pulled her invisibility cloak out. She was not sure in what kind of trouble she was in but she needed to be protected just in case something came along.

"I need to cover myself but I will be here, just tell me what you know," she said putting the cloak over her.

"It's a werewolf."

"I already thought of that and I don't think so," she said feeling disappointed. "Because none of those people became one, and werewolf bite is highly contagions."

"The white man bites, not the werewolf," he said.

"What do you mean? Are you talking about two people?" She was very confused.

"No, one person, he bites when he is not werewolf."

"A werewolf that bites when is not full moon?" she was disgusted. "How come there are no records of a contagions werewolf bite then?"

"He kill when he bite on full moons," he said very quietly.

"And how do you know all this?"

"He kill me sister. He bite her then kill her, me see everything, but he do not know."

"That is why he didn't modify your memory…" she was looking at him and he was nodding, she looked at the dark lake for a few seconds trying to sink in everything, when he spoke again.

"You help me then?" he asked.

"Depends, what do you want?"

"Me want to learn magic."

"I will try to help you. I don't know why the Ministry didn't track you down before." But the truth was, she did not know if she could help him or not, since she never heard of a full grown man starting out with the basics.

The rest of the cross was very quite, and gave the time for Jessica to come back to reality, her best friend murdered, and she had a son, a little boy that survived the attack of the most feared wizard of all times. It was too much for her, tears came rolling down face again.

As they approached the other side she tried to dry all her tears before she took her cloak off.

He walked in front of her, carefully looking around, for any potential danger.

"What is your name?" she asked, when she finally realized she didn't know his name.

"Pacon Iawi."

The rest of he way was really quiet. When they got to the place, a small jet was already waiting.

"Are you Jessica Thompson?" A tall man went out of plane.

"Depends who wants to know."

"Uh, you are tough, they gave me this to make you believe me," he said getting a small package out of his pocket.

She took it and she could not believe what she saw inside, it was the ring Sirius gave her for Christmas.

"You sure got here fast," she said putting the ring on.

"Your mother is friends with my wife. She knew I was in Brazil and arranged this emergency pick up with my wife," he got her backpack and went inside the plan.

"How did you get the ring?" she asked when she finally got back outside.

"Oh, your dad told me to meet two guys, they had my payment and your package." He was walking around the plane, checking little things. "We need to get going, they want you back by morning."

Jessica hurried inside wrote a quick letter, got the invisibility cloak and went outside again to give it to Pacon.

"Listen to me," she said giving the cloak to him. "Get back to my cabin, put the cloak on when you get there. Someone will come to get my luggage, wait for that person. Only reveal yourself if you are sure he is there for the luggage and not something else. Give him the letter, I am asking him to take you with him. Do you understand me?"

He nodded

"Do you want to come?" she asked again.

"Yes."

"See you in London then."

The pilot called her again and she knew it was time to go.

It took them all night to get to London, and Jessica did not close her eyes to whole flight there, in fact, she cried most of the way. The pilot tried talking and asking her things, but she was not in the mood to talk, most of the times she found easier to ignore the man.

When she got out of the plane she saw a black car waiting for her, with a tall black suited man standing by it, she recognized him as an Auror. He opened the car door, when Jessica finally jumped off the last step, and Remus came out. She dropped her backpack on the floor and ran to embrace him, crying more then ever, he pushed her away carefully trying to dry her tears.

"You are not supposed to trust me just yet," he said getting a small package out of his pocket. "I need to give you something."

He opened a small box and inside was the necklace her parents gave her; the same Christmas Sirius gave her the ring. "I believe this goes well with that ring of yours." She held it very tightly.

"Are my parents alright?" she asked as the car drove away.

"Yes, they are now safe at the Ministry," he replied.

"Who apparated at my house last night?"

"First someone looking for you, but Dumbledore got there right after and scared him away," he replied

"Him who?" she demanded.

"I think I will let Dumbledore tell you the story."

But something on Remus voice started to worry her now, his grief seemed to go beyond Lily and James death, something was very wrong, the problem was she did not know what.

"How come they send you and not Sirius?" she asked him.

A long silence followed, Jessica was very nervous now.

"Remus, is he okay?" Still, he didn't say anything, just sighed loudly. "I need you to answer me, what's wrong? Why won't to say something?"

"Because, I am not the right person to tell you all the details," he said silently.

"Is he alright Remus? I mean, is he hurt?"

"No he is not hurt, but he is not alright either." For the first time in her life what she saw in Remus eye terrified her, something really bad happened.

She covered her mouth with horror. "Is he dead?"

"No," he seemed a bit annoyed. "I thought you would have figured it out by now."

"I am sorry," she said puzzled. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Jessica, listen to me," Remus said firmly. "Lily and James were hiding. What is the most efficient way for them to do that?"

She thought for a second and then, "Fidelius Charm." She looked at him, Remus nodded, then it hit her. "Oh my goodness, Sirius was the secret keeper. Remus, what did Voldemort do to him? What did he do to make Sirius tell where Lily and James were hiding?"

"This is hard," looking her in the eye now. "Voldemort did not do anything to him, he is fine." He paused for a minute, Jessica knew it was hurting him to tell her. "Voldemort did not force him to say anything."

"No, this got to be a mistake," she said scowling at Remus. "You can't believe all this Remus. Sirius would never give their friends life to Voldemort."

A new feeling came over her, she was panicking, her heart beating a thousand miles an hour, while in her mind she kept saying _"it can't be true", "this is a mistak_e". "He was not the secret keeper," she said aloud. "It was someone else."

"Be reasonable, who is the only person James would trust as a secret keeper? Dumbledore offered himself but James refused it." Jessica was silent she did not know what to say or think. "Jessica, Dumbledore is inside waiting for you, I am sure he can give you more details."

They were in front of the Ministry visitor entrance now, she was quick to get off the car and Remus followed, she wanted to get away from Remus, she was furious because she thought he should know better than believing such a lie. In matter of seconds they were inside the Ministry and Remus was taking her to her parents.

She did not even look around while going in, she felt miserable and every one around her seemed extra joyful for some reason. Before long she heard her parents talking inside a room, she rushed in and found them there, safe; they hugged, Willy was the last one to let go.

After her family let go she looked around and saw Dumbledore and a man she did not know in the room as well.

"You guys can't believe Sirius betrayed James, he would never do that," she was quick to say.

"Jessica, please sit down, we need to talk," Dumbledore said kindly.

She sank into the chair Dumbledore pulled out for her, feeling her heart getting tight with pain once again.

"You need to understand some things involving your friends death," Dumbledore continued. "Now, are you sure you want to hear it now? If you are tired we can wait for a better time."

"No, I need to know what happened. And why won't you tell me where Sirius is? Is he hiding too? Is he in danger?"

"We will get to Sirius. But first lets talk about Lily and James," Dumbledore walked behind her putting his hand on her right shoulder. "When I heard Voldemort was seeking the Potters I suggested they go into hiding, told them to use the Fidelius Charm. That way they would be protected from danger, I offered to be their secret keeper myself, but they refused and said Sirius would do it, then he would go into hiding as well."

Her spine was getting cold; she did not like the direction the conversation was going. She heard it from Remus, but the second time was even worse. Her mind filled with thoughts, but she quickly send them away so she could hear what Dumbledore was saying.

"In my understanding not long after a week after they went into hiding the Potters were attacked by Voldemort. He murdered Lily and James, but was unable to kill their child, Harry."

"What do you mean unable? Did someone stop him?" she asked confused.

"No, it was only him and the baby, and some how Harry survived and Voldemort vanished, he is gone, at least for now. Something in Harry stopped him, and he lost his powers."

For a few seconds no one spoke, Jessica was picturing the scene over and over again trying to understand what happened.

"And do you all believe Sirius gave them away?" she asked.

No one spoke, they all stared at her, without saying a word. She felt the urge to start cursing at them, but didn't.

"Where is he?" she lost her temper, she was screaming now. "Say something."

Remus came forward, and very calmly said, "No one knows where he is."

"The Ministry has a lot of men out there looking for him," said the man she did know.

"I need to go find him, I need to know what happened," she went for the door but her dad got on the way, blocking her. She tried to push him away, but he stood still like a rock in front of the door, she felt angry and said even louder then before, "Get out of my way, what are you people doing?"

"Jess, listen to me," her Dad said, trying to hold her shoulder, but was failing because Jessica was struggling trying to push him out of the way.. "I've seen Sirius just a few hours ago he is fine, he is not hurt, he was not attacked."

"He is innocent, you got to believe me." She finally stopped struggling.

"My dear," Dumbledore started speaking again, "think for a moment and be reasonable. Sirius was their secret keeper, they were found. Few hours after it happened Hagrid saw him at the scene of the crime, totally unharmed. The Ministry is looking for him for questioning. I hate to think Sirius Black gave his friends away to Voldemort, but all facts to point to that."

"You can't possibly believe he would do such a thing," she couldn't believe what they were saying. "Remus, are you buying all of this?"

"I really don't want to, but he did change a lot since you left," said Remus,

"This is ridiculous," she roared. "Sirius would never betray his friends. I know that is an explanation to all of this, he is innocent."

"That is why we need to find him, so he can tell us his side of the story, but things do not look good right now," the strange man said again.

"I think you guys are all mad to even suspect him," she said trying to dry her tears, but more came running down her face. "Why I am in danger then? And why is my family here?"

"Jess when you called last night," her mom spoke for the first time since she got there. "Sirius apparated right in our living room, your dad hanged up the phone before he could get to you. Sirius was furious, he was not the same. He looked like a mad men, like he was out of his mind. I thought he was going to attack your dad, he was yelling and cursing. Said he was going to find you. I honestly thought we were history. But Dumbledore knocked our door and scared Sirius way."

"Of course he wants to find me," her temper boiling high. "And he is right, you all think he betrayed his friends, I am the only one that believes Sirius would never do a thing like that."

At that moment someone knocked in the door and came in. They called the strange man out, they called him Fudge, she recognized that name, he was the Junior Minister from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad. Jessica could not speak anymore, she felt sick, no one dared to say a word.

"Do you think they found Peter?" Mrs. Thompson asked softly.

"I don't know," replied Dumbledore. "Let's wait and see."

"Why are they looking for Peter?" Jessica asked.

"The Ministry just wants to make sure all Sirius friends are safe, and Peter is no where to be found." Dumbledore said calmly.

Jessica did not even feel like speaking again, it was the worse pile of rubbish she ever heard. Sirius would never harm any of his friends and the fact that everybody actually believed he could was sickening to her.

Fudge came back in the room, and the look on his face was not comforting.

"So, any news? Did they find Peter or Sirius?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, they actually found both," he said. Jessica's heart came into a sudden stop. "Peter found Sirius, they told me Peter was trying to make Sirius pay for what he did to the Potters. So he cornered Sirius in the street. Of course, that was foolish; Sirius attacked him, in a street full of muggles. But the Ministry got there on time to at least capture Black."

Everything was so confusing to her. Sirius attacking Peter? That did not make sense, very smoothly she asked. "Where did you say Peter found Sirius?"

Quickly and without thinking he said. "Here in London, Margery Street."

She knew exactly where that was. It was a very busy street off King's Cross Road. Everybody in the room was looking at her, most people shaking their heads at her. She had to go see him.

"Jessica don't do anything stupid," she heard Remus urge.

Next thing she knew Dumbledore was coming on her direction, he tried to hold her by the arm, but before he could get to her… CRACK, she was gone.

Few seconds later she was in the heart of London, on Margery Street, for a moment she thought she was in the wrong place, she looked around trying to find Sirius. She saw a crowd of people on the very end of the street. Thinking that must be where Sirius was she broke in to a run.

Lots of muggles were standing around what looked like a crater in the middle of the street, water shooting everywhere from and cracked sewer below. As she got closer she heard some one laughing. She fought her way through the muggles trying to get a closer look and what she saw was shocking. There were at least twelve bodies all over the street, judging by their cloths there were all muggles and she saw a heap of bloodstained robes near where Sirius himself stood. The loud laughter she heard was from him, he sounded like a mad man, just like her mom said, not at all like the Sirius she remembered.

Couple of workers from the Ministry were holding him by the arm, he did not even resist, he just let them. Then, he saw her, Jessica was on the opposite side of the crater looking in disbelieve. Their eyes met, and for one second the madness on his eyes was gone, for a second she saw the sweet yet desperate Sirius she knew. He struggled a little trying to break free. Yelled "JESSICA…" but they were gone, disappeared before her eyes.

Some one pulled her by the arm, it was Remus. He looked very angry and started shouting at her. "Do you have any idea what your parents and Dumbledore went through to make sure you were safe? To bring you here? To protect you? They were trying to keep you away from him and you just pop up in front of him? What were you thinking…" his voice faded, she saw Sirius, he murdered a dozen of muggles and Peter, his friend. She felt sick to her stomach, and did not know what to think. "Jessica are you listening to me?" Remus asked in a calmer voice.

She looked at him, he looked deeply in her eyes and she felt like he understood her pain. "Oh Jess, I am so sorry things turn out this way." He hugged her, as she finally lost it and started sobbing on his shoulders. 


	2. The Meeting

The next couple of weeks were the worse days of Jessica's life. She had no motivation, she spend most of the time in her room back at her parents house. Remus would stop often to visit, and she did appreciate it but at the same time wanted him to go away.

Remus also took care of empting the house Sirius and Jessica used to live in. Her mom brought all of Jessica's things back to her house and Sirius house was now up for sale. She really did not feel like going to see the house, she knew it was full of memories, and the last thing she needed right now was more reminders of Sirius.

The Potters funeral was painful, she felt her soul ripping with the thought that she was not there for her friend when she needed the most. Harry was gone, he went to live with his aunt Petunia, that thought also made her insides ache. He had no one else to look after him, and if only she had stayed close them she would be Harry's godmother and be able to take care of him.

About one month after she was back, she decided it was time to go back to work. Her boss was very understanding, and told her to take her time, and she did.

First day back actually felt good, she saw Pacon Iawi once again and found out he'd been waiting patiently for her return, since she would be the one training him. She was very excited about that, but first she need to work on the reports of everything she found out in the amazons.

She was about to go home that very first day when she met Dumbledore. It was very unusual meeting him because she'd never seen Dumbledore at the Department of Mysteries before. He was caring a small black box and was talking with Mr. Brisson, her boss.

"Hey Mss. Thompson, I need one more favor before you go," said Mr. Brisson.

"Sure," she replied. "Hi, Dumbledore," feeling a little embarrassed after her behavior the day she came back.

"Hello, and you my call me Albus, I am not your headmaster anymore." But that made her blush a bit.

"I need you to take this to the Hall of Prophecies," he took the small box from Dumbledore's hand and gave it to her. "I believe that is a spot for it down on row ninety seven."

"Okay." Without giving much thought she took it and left.

She got the row ninety seven and did see a spot for it there. She was a bit excited because it was the first time she got to put a prophecy on the shelf, before it got all dusty and old. She opened the box and found a glass orb inside, this one had a faint inner light, shining brighter then all of the ones around it, perhaps because it was still new.

Carefully she placed the small glass orb on the shelf and was about to leave, walking away, when something caught her attention, the name Harry Potter. She went back to take a closer look. And on the label she read S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D. , she knew the second one was Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore at once, but had no idea who the seer was. But what shocked her the most was the second line that said, Dark Lord and (?)Harry Potter.

She felt the desire to listen to it, but she knew she couldn't. She was about to leave again and she saw a woman, very thin, wearing many chains and beads, bangles and rings, and huge glasses. For a moment she did not understand what was happing, and then the woman started speaking in a soft and misty voice:

_"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."_

Her heart was racing now, she just heard the prophecy, but how? She walked away as fast as she could, being careful not to run. She stopped at her desk to gather some papers and really wanted to go home before meeting anyone, she knew she probably looked sick, she was shaking inside.

Once again Jessica found herself sitting outside staring at the stars, it was full moon tonight, this became a routine of hers. She bought an apartment not far from the Ministry, and her favorite spot was the small balcony, where she sat at night when the sky was clear and stared at the stars always with the same thought in mind, "perhaps Sirius is looking at them like I am." The thought that he and her could be looking at the same place, at the same time was some what comforting to her.

It's been twelve years since she last saw Sirius, and everyday that went by she was more convinced that he was indeed innocent. Although all of the evidence was against him, she did not forget the look on his eyes when he saw her that morning on Margery Street, she knew he was innocent but who would believe her? If the only prove she had, was the way he looked at her.

A lot changed in her life in the last years, of course her heart was never open for another man, she was still alone, and much in love with the only men she ever loved.

About three years ago she had a carrier change, the new Minister of the Magic, Cornelius Fudge requested Jessica to be his personal helper. At first she did not want to take the job, but he wouldn't take a "no" for an answer, and her family and friends finally convinced her to take the job. She figured it would be nice to be around people for once, she loved working with Mr. Brisson but most people did not even know who she was, since most of what she did was a secret.

Fudge was extremely annoying; she did not care for him, but at the same time gave her all, to do the best she could. She thought Fudge was not ready to be the Minister, he was very insecure about his decisions, in the beginning he asked Dumbledore advice and every move he made, now he finally stopped doing that, but still, he asked Jessica's opinion in everything, even what kind of flowers to give to his wife.

The only reason why she stayed on the job was because the pay was really good, she was financially comfortable for the very first time, plus she wanted to try to get as close as she could to Fudge, with the hope, some day, to help Sirius out of Azkaban. She figured if she stayed long enough to Fudge, she could try to get, at least, a fair trial for Sirius.

Jessica dozed off on the balcony and woke up with a gentle touch on her arm, she opened her eyes and saw her friend Remus as a werewolf by her. Couple of years ago Damocles finally managed to brew successfully a Wolfbane Potion, he was trying to get it right for years, since Jessica and her friends were in school. They tried to work on it themselves while in school but Dumbledore decided it was time for them to concentrate in other things, so they gave all their notes to Damocles, and every time he sees Jessica he tells her how helpful they were.

This was a life changing event for Remus, although the potion did not cure him, he was able to transform and keep his mind, that way he was not dangerous for humans. He always came to Jessica's apartment on full moon, that way she could keep an eye on him; she was the one making him the potion every month as well.

She wondered for a second why he woke her up, and found an owl sitting on her balcony. She knew that once it was from Fudge.

"He probably had a nightmare again," she said laughing and looking at Remus.

Emergency at Hogwarts.  
Please meet me there.  
Sincerely,  
Cornelius Fudge.

"Harry," she said aloud, nearly falling out of the chair.

She never meet Harry face to face, although she kept a close watch on him over the years, she never actually talked with him. But this year she was even more worried about him, rumors of a Chamber of Secrets being opened on Hogwarts was bugging her, the story told was that Salazar Slytherin created the chamber and left a monster inside of it, no one knew for sure if such a thing was real, but horrible things were happening at Hogwarts and she feared for Harry's safety.

Jessica grabbed her cloak in a hurry, and apparated right on Hogsmeade station, and broke into a run toward the Hogwarts castle, with a prayer on her heart. "Oh please let Harry be okay."

When she finally got there she was surprised to see the students still up, they were leaving the Great Hall, just finishing a feast. She calmed down and realized everything was fine. She quickly ran her eyes through the Gryffindor crowd and spotted Harry, along with his friends.

Since she did not see Fudge around, she figured he would be at Dumbledore's office. She walked over but was not in a hurry, in her mind she knew Fudge had over reacted again.

"Miss Thompson, I had a feeling I would be seeing you tonight." It was Dumbledore. "Fudge it's waiting for me in my office, please join us."

"How is everything?" she asked.

"Much better," he replied happily.

After some attacks at Hogwarts the governors suspended Dumbledore, Jessica knew it was a huge mistake, and she was glad to see him back. They went in Dumbledore's office and the Minister waiting inside.

"I see you are back. Did you get the person behind the attacks? And how is the Weasleys daughter?" Fudge asked rather rudely.

"Good to see you too," Dumbledore replied. "And yes, we caught the attacker. Ginny is fine Cornelius, Harry rescued her, went down to the chamber himself," Dumbledore said, looking at Jessica, with his eye twinkling.

Jessica who patiently stayed out of the way could not ignore this statement said, "Ginny Weasley? Is she okay? What happened?"

"She is now resting at the hospital wing. You see, the heir took her down to the chamber earlier this evening and Harry found it with his friend Ron's help, fought the monster, that turned out to be a basilisk, and came out of it safe and sound.'

"He did?" she asked softy, wondering how on earth he managed to do that, but before she could ask more Fudge spoke again.

"The attacker Albus? Who opened the chamber?"

"The same person that opened it the first time"

"No sense, Hagrid it's in Azkaban." Fudge said confused.

"I said the same person, and I told you it was not Hagrid." Dumbledore paused and said. "It was Lord Voldemort."

Fudge started laughing. "You really want me to believe that? He is gone, and if he was back don't you think I would know. I am the Minister."

"Well he enchanted another person to do the job, through his diary." He went on and told Fudge and Jessica about the diary that Ginny found and wrote on all year, how it some how made her do it all. And that Harry faced Tom Riddle, Voldemort as a 16 year old boy, and lived once again.

Jessica was petrified by the story, Harry had escaped, yet, another time. It was fascinating.

"Well better go then," said Fudge looking quite shocked himself. "Keep up the good work," he said leaving, sounding stupid.

"Ginny is at hospital wing, Molly is with her, if you want to go see her." Dumbledore told Jessica before she left.

She got close to the Weasleys over the years, she adored that family. Molly invited Jessica for dinner all the time, she really enjoyed their company. She first met then when Molly and Arthur were still dating, on her first trip to Diagon Alley, then she met Arthur many years later at the Ministry and it was the start of their friendship.

Walking through Hogwarts empty halls was not easy, those walls were filled with memories of a happier time in her life, everywhere she looked reminded her of her dear friend Lily, she tried hard not to think of Sirius but his face kept popping up on her head, making her heart ache.

A feeling of relief came when she finally faced the hospital wing door, slowly, she opened the door and took a peek inside to see if it was okay to come in. All of the Weasleys were there, along with a girl with brown bushy hair, she know to be Hermione Granger, and for her surprise Harry.

This was unexpected, she closed the door quickly standing outside, hoping no one seen her. Slowly stepping away and turning around she decided to come back another time. In her mind she was not ready to meet Harry, what would she say to him? Over the years she kept thinking about things to say when they meet , and nothing seemed appropriate, so delaying their meeting was normally the solution she came up with.

She heard rapidly footsteps coming in her direction from behind the door, the door busted open making Jessica freeze.

"Oh, Jessica I thought I saw you." Turning around she saw red headed thin man, standing at the door, it was Arthur Weasley, she faked a smile. "Come in Ginny will be so happy to see you, she adores you, you know."

"Arthur I don't mean to intrude, I will come back another time to see her, it's late and she is probably tired, I will let you and your family spend some time with her." Jessica said hoping he would just let her go, but as soon as she finished she noticed a second person emerging behind him, it was his wife, Molly.

"Oh, non sense, come in, the kids should be in bed anyway." She walked inside, and Jessica could hear her telling the kids to go rather loudly. "Of to bed, you will all be in trouble if McGonagall finds you all in here, go now, go."

Before long Percy came out, followed by Fred and George, her heart racing a bit knowing Harry was about to come out, first came Hermione, then Ron, she waited and then she saw him, Harry came out, she never seen him this close, she knew he looked like James, but now she could see that Harry was a copy of James, they were extremely alike. Their eyes met, first thought on Jessica's mind was to look away, but she couldn't, his eyes brought peace to her soul. It felt like her friend was looking at her, felt for a second that Lily was alive again, on that little boys eyes. She smiled and he smiled back walking away.

Jessica was feeling warm inside and happy that their first meeting was not painful, no words were spoken but she felt really good, she sat by Ginny on the bed.

Ginny looked extremely tired, as she suspected, they talked for a few minutes while Jessica stroked her hair until she fell asleep. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley left to go talk with Dumbledore and Jessica was left alone with Ginny, watching over the girl she considered to be her niece.

The hospital wing door opened once more and at first she couldn't see who was there, then she saw Ron come in timidly, and he was not alone Harry was with him.

"Are you two looking for trouble?" Jessica said while they walked to her. "You should be in bed."

"Jessica, do you know what Harry just asked me?" Ron started ignoring her concern. "He asked me who you were. He asked me," he repeated. "Now I have no clue why he doesn't know who you are yet, but I think you should be the one to tell him."

"Ron, honestly this is not the time," she started but Ron got annoyed and talked over her.

"Not the time? Not the time, he is twelve years old and you did not find the right time yet? You tell him or I will."

This was very awkward and definitely not how she wanted things to go. Ron was right their meeting was way overdue by now.

"Harry I am Jessica Thompson I am good friends with Ron's family, I saw little Ginny be born," she paused and look at Ron, who quickly shock is head, she sighted. " Harry I went to school with your mom, we were good friends," she stopped talking and tried hard to hold the tears she felt coming.

"Oh but that is not good enough," Ron said looking at her and waiting for more, but Jessica couldn't speak again, she felt if she opened her mouth again she would cry. Harry looked puzzled and was looking back and forth between Ron and Jessica, who were staring each other now. " You give me no choice," Ron looked at Harry, "she was not only good friends with you mom, they were best friends, more like sisters as I heard. When you were born she was away doing Ministry work, and if she was here, well, lets say you would not be living with those rotten muggles."

Harry looked even more puzzled. A moment of silence followed, Jessica felt frozen inside. Harry was the one to break the silence.

"Why? Why wouldn't I be living with my aunt if you she was here?" he said.

Jessica decided to open her mouth and speak this time. "I was supposed to be your Godmother. I am so sorry Harry."

Harry's face was white. She did not know what else to say and obviously Harry was facing the same problem.

"I think we should go back to our dormitory Ron." Harry said and left.

Ron followed and stopped at the door and said. " Bye, and sorry he really needed to know."

"I know," it was all the words she could put together at that time.

Molly and Arthur were taking a long time to return so Jessica wrote a note telling them that she needed to go after Ginny fell asleep.

The only thing Jessica could think of the next few days was how badly her meeting with Harry turned out. She told Remus what had happened and he agreed she needed to do something about it, of course to do something about it she needed to try to catch up with Harry before he went back to the Dudley's house. Somehow she didn't think Petunia would be happy to see Jessica ringing her door bell, as a matter of fact, Jessica giggled a bit every time she tried to picture such a thing.

Fudge was especially annoying today, and Jessica really was about to hex him, and she would've done it if that didn't seem too childish and was ready to over look that fact but tried to remain cool, just thinking how badly it would look if she hexed the Minister of Magic.

"Mss. Thompson, do you think this robe makes me look fat?" He came in her office with a very ugly and bright green robe.

"No way, that has your name written all over it, it's perfect," that was the only circumstance that she did not mind lying, make Fudge look stupid was becoming one of her favorite things to do. "You know what? I was thinking about going to Hogwarts; make sure things are going back to normal nicely."

"What a great idea, let me gather my stuff and we will go," Fudge said.

"No," Jessica said rather nervously. "Why don't you take a break, go home early, your wife will be so happy. I can handle this, is no big deal," she quickly added in a calmer voice. The truth was she just needed to get away from him, before she lost her mind.

"Oh, alright then, if you say so," he was please. "What a great idea, I don't know what I would do without you," he said and left her room.

She made a funny face when he turned around, made her feel like she was ten years old again, but she did not care, she was really tried of him.

Avoiding Hogwarts was always her first choice, but not this time, she knew she had to put things right with Harry, and that is why she decided to go there in the first place. It was a hard task trying to find Harry among all the students; she looked over an hour when she saw Severus.

"Hello Jessica, long time no see," said Severus rather lazily. "I don't think I ever seen you here in the school since we graduated. Of course, I heard you came last week. I have to say I was surprised you didn't even bother to come and say hi."

"Sorry it was a bad night for me, still trying to get over it. What are you going this summer vacation?" she said, still looking around for Harry.

"You know, the usual." He said looking around trying to figure out what Jessica was looking for.

She let out a small laugh. "Nothing then, tell you what, I will go see you, we should do something."

"You don't have to, what brings you here anyway?"

"Harry, I need to talk to him, have you seen him?"

"You met then?" Severus asked, Jessica nodded. "I see, try Hagrid's he goes there a lot."

"Thanks, see you this summer than," she said and left. Severus had a really angry face on but she did not care, she came to speak to Harry and was not willing to lose time on Severus and his immature grudge towards Harry.

Jessica knocked Hagrid's door, and Severus was right, she found Harry, Hermione and Ron inside the gamekeepers hut.

"Mss. Thompson, what a surprise." Hagrid said. "Come in."

Hermione quickly stood up. "Hagrid why don't you show us that thing, you know, outside," she said pulling Ron's arm.

"Oh yes, that thing, of course I will show you," he said a bit confused. "Uh, lets see, follow me."

Jessica followed with her eyes the three leaving and closing the door behind them. She took a long breath and turned to Harry, who was laughing a bit, she was relieved.

"That was odd," she said while finding her a place to sit down.

"Yeah that was really odd," the boy agreed. "Listen I am sorry, about that night on the hospital wing, I did not know what to say or think."

"Oh Harry, you shouldn't feel sorry, it's my fault, I waited way to long to meet you. I just kept waiting for the right time and it never came."

An awkward silence followed.

"Listen," she kept going. "A lot of people think that if I was here when you were born you would've stayed with me and not your aunt," he was listening really closely. "But the truth is that Dumbledore would've wanted you to go there even if you had the option to be raised by you Godmother or father. Believed me I asked, and Dumbledore said your aunt's house is the best and safest place for you go right now."

"How can he think living with those muggles is the best place for me? They hate me and I hate them. I don't want to go back there, can I just come live with you."

"Harry is not that simple, you may not understand now, but you will later, I promise. I would love to have you come and live with me. But you will need to go and stay with Petunia a little longer."

"I don't think this plan is fair. I can't even choose," Harry said standing and walking towards the fireplace.

"No, is not fair I agree, and sadly right now you can't choose. But with a little bit of patience you will get through it and soon enough you will never have to see their faces again."

"I like that idea," he said with a half smile..

"So next time you think you can't do it, just focus on the day you will leave their house and never come back, that will bring you temporary relief." She said, putting her hands over his shoulder.

"I think I can do that," he said smiling again. "We were about to have tea do you want to stay a bit."

"Sounds good," she said and went and opened the window to call in Hagrid, Hermione and Ron, she found the three with their ears clued to the door. "Oh for heaven sake, we have spells for those kinds of things; you don't need to be clued to the door to listen to a private conversation." The three jumped. "Hagrid we are ready for some tea now."

They all talked and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon together. Harry asked Jessica a lot of questions about his mother and even Hagrid had a few stories to tell. When it got dark Jessica walked the kids back to the castle and went home. This time, feeling a little happier with how things turned out.


	3. Azkaban Fortress

For the first time in a long time Jessica was content with her life, she finally met Harry and the two of them were now building a relationship. Harry was back at home with the Dursleys and she was trying to talk Dumbledore into letting Harry come stay with her, but he just wouldn't let him.

She carried on with her life like everything was alright, sometimes she even believed everything was right, but at night when she was done with her busy life an overwhelming feeling of loneliness came over her. She missed Sirius, she missed getting home to him, missed his silliness and his care.

Every month she looked forward to the full moon, when Remus came to stay with her for a few nights, his company helped her cope with her pain. And now, even his companionship she couldn't look forward to. Remus was given a job at Hogwarts, teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, and although it was great news, and she felt happy for his accomplishment, at the same time she felt sad he would not come every month.

Since summer started Jessica and Severus met a few times and at first it was very pleasant, at least as pleasant as it could be. But last time they met, Severus started remembering and questioning Jessica about their school days, about Lily, James and Sirius too. The conversation got tense, and Jessica decided to call it a night when Severus finally cracked and asked her with she was still in love with Sirius. They didn't talk since that night, and none of them dared to try.

At work she was so busy that there were no time to be annoyed at Fudge, they were both concentrating on their own things that they rarely spoke during the day. One day he informed her he would need to go and inspect Azkaban by the end of the week and asked her to put the paper in order for him, mostly put forms together.

Fudge would go to Jessica office, ever so often, sometimes look around and leave, or pretend he forgot something. Jessica could tell he was trying to say something but didn't know how, but she let him keep doing that for a long time, just for her

amusement.

"Do you need to ask me something?" She finally asked as she was getting ready to leave.

"Oh yes, as a matter a fact." He looked relieved. "I was thinking, I hate this Azkaban inspection that place just gets to me. Although dementors stay away and let me do my thing, they are still there; you can still feel them a bit. I think it would help if someone went with me, you know, just get it done faster and leave."

He stopped talking, Jessica stared him for a few seconds.

"What are you trying to say?" she asked and waited. He didn't say anything. "Do you want to go with you?"

"What a great idea." He said with a full smile on his face. "I want to get this done tomorrow, just get this out of my way. Is the paper work ready?"

"No, but I will stay late and finish." She waited until he left and started passing the room. She was going to Azkaban; she was going to see Sirius. "What will I say?" she said aloud. The door opened again, she froze. First thing that came to her mind was that Fudge realized his mistake.

"While you are at it, I have here the list of all the prisoners just split it in two for tomorrow." He put the papers on the table. "Good heavens, are you alright? You are as white as a ghost."

She was feeling quite weak, almost light headed; she sat down on her chair.

"I am fine," she said trying to come up with something to say.

"I get it, Azkaban makes you nervous. But I promise the dementors won't come near us, just take a bar of chocolate with you and all will be fine," he said and left again.

For a few minuets she sat there, thinking if Fudge could really be that naive. She was looking around her messy desk, when she spotted the pile of papers Fudge put on her table. She got them and started reading it, searching Sirius name. Each page had about three prisoners name, crimes information and cell number.

Prisoner after prisoner, crimes after crimes, it was too much information, more than she wanted. Then she read it, it was Sirius name. Sirius Black, Crimes: Death Eater, Murderer. Cell 14b, and in the bottom described his crimes in details.

Jessica got the map of the prison, and saw that they cells were numbered 1-18a, 1-20b and 1-10c. She took another quick look in the prisoners list and no one was in the "c's", and "a" and "b" were totally full.

"I guess I will take "b" Fudge "a"," she said aloud, giggling to herself.

It was impossible to sleep that night. She kept thinking of things to say, from time to time she felt a bit scared, not knowing what to expect, a couple of times she thought he might attack her, but felt silly afterwards because deep inside her she knew he would never do such a thing.

Jessica went to the office, without eating, she couldn't, the only thing she got before she left was a king size chocolate bar, that she put inside her robes. Fudge was already waiting for her when she got there.

"I say we go now, and get this over with." Fudge said as soon as she came in.

"Okay I will the papers." She returned from her office with the pile of paper she worked on and they left.

Fudge took her to a hallway at the Ministry, a place she never been to. He opened a door and there was nothing there. Just a black hole, he stepped in and disappeared. She hesitated but followed. They were in a river side, behind them a thick jungle. The river was covered with fog.

There was a small boat in the shore, Fudge went in, and once again she followed. As soon as they sat down it started moving but itself.

"This will take at least ten minutes," he said. "Let me see what you have for me."

"Yes, here," she handed him few pages of a form; they were check marks of building and prisoners conditions. "And I divided the prisoners by a, b and c. You can take the "a's" they are all in here," she showed them in the map. "I will take "b", no one is on "c", so we can do it together, and it will be fast we need to check the building only."

He started laughing. "I knew it," he said.

She feared he knew what she was up to, but stayed quiet trying to play it cool. He stopped laughing.

"I see I have 18 units and you have 20, I knew you would get more, you are always trying to make my life easier," he said.

She gave him a sympathetic smile and didn't say anything. Fudge started reading a issue of the Daily Prophet, and Jessica noticed a lovely picture of the Weasley family in Egypt on the front page.

The ride took an eternity. When they got there Jessica just wanted to get started and was happy to see Fudge was too. They quickly split, and each went their way. Jessica was moving fast, one after the other, longing for cell 14.

She understood what Fudge meant when he said he didn't like to go there. Although the dementors were no where to be seen she felt extremely depressed. The look of the place did not help either, most of the cells were exposed to the elements, no lighting, it rained and the place was all wet. Most of the prisoners looked like they gone insane, some staring at nothing, others would not even move, looking dead.

She was on cell 10 now, she filled the form with the prisoner name first, looking at the list with names and cell numbers she read the name Bellatrix Black Lestrange. and she wrote it down, she knew that name way to well, but had never met her, she was about to go to cell number 11 when she noticed the woman getting closer to her, forcing her face through the bars.

"I can't believe my eyes. Jessica Thompson?"

Jessica took her wand out and pointed at her.

Bellatrix let out a hysterical laugh. "Don't worry I can't hurt you, but if these bars weren't here I would."

She tried to ignore and kept walking.

"I was there the day my aunt took your dear Sirius name out of the family tree. I guess you were the last straw, he really decided to turn his back to his own loving family," she said and laughed again. Jessica did not reply and kept going, the woman stopped for a moment, and then Jessica heard her muttering something, but she did not care to know what, cell 14 was just a few feet away.

The inspection on cell 13 was done. "Is time," she thought. Slowly she walked over, she didn't know what to expect. First thing she saw was his shoes, he was laying down on the wet floor. She could see him now, but he was not moving. Her heart was racing.

"Sirius," she whispered not to draw attention, he didn't move. "Alohomora." But that did not work either. She looked around, shaking. She concentrated on the solid metal bar, lifted her wand and the bar started to bend, she never tried doing anything that this before. The bar broke off making a rather loud noise, she looked around to see if no one was coming, when she was going in she noticed Sirius sitting up.

"Jessica," he said a low weak voice, she knelt by him, and he launched to hug her, she could feel tears running down her neck, not hers, but his.

He let go and grabbed her by the shoulders. "I didn't do it, it was not me. You know I wouldn't"

"I know," running her hands on his bony face, which was aged beyond what she pictured.

He held her hand and kissed it devotedly. "I love you," he said letting out more tears.

"I love you too, and I always will," she was saying and feeling extremely cold.

Her hands were freezing, she was looking at Sirius and he looked up and jumped back letting her go, she didn't need to look back to know what was happing, she could see the terror on Sirius face.

She stood up, got her wand and turned, she tried to see how many dementors there were, but they so many she couldn't count. She was getting really weak, feeling drained, she fell back on her knees, gathering all the strength to do a patronus; she took the bar of chocolate and dropped it behind Sirius.

"Expecto Patro…" it was too late, she couldn't finish. She felt her head hit hard on the stony floor, and it was like her life of being sucked out, she saw a silver light and passed out.

Jessica felt like she got ran over by a large truck, it was very cold. She tried opening her eyes and moving her leg, but she couldn't. Everything was pitch black. She laid on bed like that for a few minutes, trying to figure out what happened and where she was. Trying hard to remember the only thing that came to mind was a silvery light and sudden cold. She tried to catch a deep breath, but couldn't, but she realized she must be at home, she smelled vanilla, her favorite fragrance, she had at least ten vanilla candles all over her two bedroom apartment.

Took her another few minutes to realize someone was holding her hand, she tried harder to open her eyes be she couldn't, she knew she was too weak. She felt something heavy against her hips, giving her the impression someone laid their head by her, and wasn't moving, "Probably asleep", she thought.

She gathered all the strength she had and she was able to move her hand a few inches, the head by her suddenly moved and she no longer felt it, there was silence, trying even harder she moved he hand again just a bit.

"Jessica," she heard a voice call, and for her relief she recognize to be Remus. He let go of her hand, and she heard him walking away rather fast and coming back again. He forced something into her mouth, and instantly she felt warmer, it was a piece of chocolate. Less then a minute went by and she was able to finally open her eyes.

"Remus, what happened?" she said trying to sit up, but failed.

"Don't sit up, you're still too weak," he let out a small laugh, but she knew that laugh, he was mad. "You honestly don't know what happened?"

"Sorry, I do know, the dementors attacked me, because I went in to talk with Sirius," she said feeling her head spin.

"Correction, they didn't only attack you they almost sucked your soul out," his voice was very hard, he was trying to keep calm but every time he spoke his voice was louder. "I thought you had better common sense, imagine what couldn't happened, the patronus came right on time." He took a long breath. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" He finally lost it and yelled.

"ISN'T OBVIOUS? I WASN'T" she replied in equal volume.

"I am sorry, I shouldn't yell," he said.

"Me too," she replied.

"Do you remember what happened? Did you get a chance to talk to Sirius?" He asked.

"Yes, I spotted him in the cell I thought he was dead, he wasn't moving, I called him, still he didn't move. I had to go in and talk to him, you would've done the same," she explained.

"I probably would," he calmly added. "What else to do you remember?"

She went on telling him their short conversation, ant her belief that she indeed was innocent, she described the feeling inside her when the dementors were closing on her, and the silvery light.

"I need to ask you, what is your patronus?" Remus asked.

"A small dragon. Why?"

But he didn't answer right a way, he walked to the window and looked outside for a few seconds, thinking.

"When Fudge realized all the commotion he quickly went over to check on you, when he was getting closer he saw a patronus and the dementors going away. By they time he got there, both you and Sirius were unconscious. But what made me very curious was the shape of the patronus he says he saw, " he explained still looking out of the window.

"What shape was it?" she asked and he looked her.

"He said it was either a bear, or a very large dog," Jessica looked puzzled, he sat by her. "Jessica, you don't know what Sirius patronus is?"

"Uh, no. But let me guess, a bear or a dog." He nodded.

"Is a bear like dog," he said, with a small smile.

"He saved me then. Do you believe he is innocent now?" She asked.

"I believe he saved you, but I don't know about if he is clean of all the other stuff," he paused. "For all I know, he still loves you and wants to safe, even Death Eaters are capable of loving another person."

"The only problem is, he is not a Death Eater," she said feeling annoyed, Remus was walking out of the room. "Where are you going?"

"Calling your mom, she will come stay with you. I need to get going, I have a lot of things to get ready before the classes start."

After a few minutes he quickly came in to the bedroom, with a big bar of chocolate, kissed her forehead, said bye and left.


	4. Waiting for Love

Going back to work was not an easy task, the story of what happened traveled fast, everybody seemed to know everything, but for what Jessica heard, it all sounded like a big fat lie.

Fudge was in an awful bad mood around Jessica, he tried to confront Jessica about the matter, and she was very plain saying she did not want to talk about it, and so he stopped trying, but from time to time she heard him muttering under his breath, things like, "what was she thinking", "how could she", "what do I tell the Daily Prophet".

Nearly two weeks after the Azkaban inspection passed, and Jessica tried to concentrate on her work, while everybody else around her wanted to concentrate on her and what happened.

It was the end of July now, Jessica was, as usual, sitting in her office with her door closed when she heard Dumbledore voice down the hall. Dumbledore was stopping by a lot this past few days, Jessica knew why, Fudge was not a good decision maker, he always needed a second opinion and since Jessica and Fudge were not in a friendly mode, Fudge turned to Dumbledore instead.

Jessica opened her door, she had something on her mind and she needed to ask Dumbledore.

"Dumbledore can I have a minute?" She asked.

"Of course," he came in and Jessica closed the door behind him. "Please is about time you call me Albus."

"Hmm, okay," she said feeling a little awkward. "Albus, Harry birthday is in a couple of days and I was wondering if he could come and stay with me for a few days, is about time he had a good birthday."

Dumbledore stared at Jessica and said, "I think that can be arranged, if you really want to I can't say no, just send him an owl to see if he is okay with it."

"Thank you, I need to talk with you about something else," she said and he nodded. "About Sirius."

"Why don't you tell me first, what really happened during visit?"

Jessica knew to trust him, and she did, she opened her heart and told him their short conversation and her conviction that Sirius is innocent, a good man being punished for something he did not do.

"How can you be so sure he is innocent?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

"I am not sure how I know, I felt it, when I looked in his eyes I saw a good man, a good soul. Loyalty is Sirius best quality."

"Yes, I have to agree with that, he was very loyal, this is one of the reason why the story we all know doesn't make sense to me," he added.

But before she could say another word, her office door blasted open and she saw Fudge coming in, his face red in anger.

"ARREST HER," he shouted and at least ten aurors came in the room with their wand raised.

Dumbledore stood up at once in front of Jessica, blocking the way so the Aurors could not touch her.

"May I ask what is the problem?" he asked politely.

"Sirius Black, he escaped Azkaban, she's done it." Fudge said trying to control his temper, but still very furious.

"Remarkable," said Dumbledore and all the Aurors looked at him, like he was mental. "And when did this happened?"

"About an hour ago," Fudge answered. "Now, move out of the way, we need to take her for questioning."

"I am sorry, how is she involved? She was here the whole time." Dumbledore said and the Auror one by one started lowering their wands.

"I don't know, that is why I am arresting her for questioning," he looked at her.

"I have no idea how he broke out," said Jessica, feeling extremely puzzled at the idea he managed to escape, wondering if the chocolate bar she left there for him was enough to give him strength to escape.

"Tell us then, what happened that day?" Fudge said a little bit calmer.

Jessica looked at Dumbledore, who nodded. She told them everything.

"Is that all?" One of the Aurors asked. She nodded.

"How do we know you are telling the truth?" Another asked.

"Because she is," Dumbledore said firmly, after this, the aurors left the room.

"I don't understand, how did he do it?" said Fudge very frustrated.

"I don't know," Jessica answered.

"What did the dementors reported?" Dumbledore asked.

Fudge told them that for weeks Sirius laid in his cell, muttering nonsense about Harry being at Hogwarts, and today everything went silent and the dementors did not feel him, so they thought he was dead, when they went in for the body they realized he was gone.

"This can be fixed, we just need to catch him before he gets to Harry, and put him right back," Fudge finished.

"Don't you think we should give him a trial?" Jessica asked.

"What for?" Fudge asked surprised.

She was about to answer when Dumbledore raised his hand to stop her.

"Let me know if I can help, and would like to have a word Jessica, if you don't mind." Dumbledore said and pointed at the door, Fudge quickly left.

"We need to find him Albus," said Jessica quickly.

"I know, I will do my best, and lets hope you or me find him first. I just need you to understand, I must ask you to let Harry be, let him stay where he is. I need to be sure of Sirius intentions for myself, before giving him my full trust."

Jessica nodded and he left.

"I need to send Remus an owl," she said leaving her office.

Feeling overwhelmingly happy, she did not care how he's done it, but she was glad, she knew it was a matter a patience and that Sirius would come to her, she was going to see him again.

It was Halloween night, months after she first learned Sirius broke out of Azkaban, she had no plans and was by herself at home, feeling mad that Sirius did not look for her, she was getting ready to go to bed early when the telephone rang, the only people that phoned her was her family, she finally decided to install one because her dad was annoyed not being able to talk to her when he pleased.

"Hello."

"Hi Jessica, it's mom."

"Hi mom," she replied.

"What are you doing?" her mom asked.

"Nothing, just getting ready to go to bed," she said, knowing what was coming next.

"For heavens sake, you need to snap out of this," her mom said and waited to see if Jessica was going to say something, but she didn't. "Sirius is on the loose for months now and he has not come to you, didn't you get the memo yet? You can't just sit in your apartment and wait for him your whole life. You used to come and visit once a week, last time you came for you dad birthday in August, and still you stayed for a hour and hurried back home."

"Mom, I am really tired I really need to go to bed," Jessica said trying to get out of the conversation.

"No, I think you can stay awake for another couple of hours, your brother is home and he wants to see you," her brother was away for College, Jessica was nine years older than he was.

"I will stop by, give me five minutes to change."

She hanged up, changed and was ready to apparate at her parents house when an owl flew in. She got the letter from its leg and read a small note.

"Sirius Black was inside the castle tonight, we are still searching for him. I thought you would like to come. Remus"

Not another word, she got her broom and apparated in her parents living room. She saw their big smile, happy to see her, they were playing cards.

"I can't stay, I need to go to Hogwarts, Remus just wrote me and Sirius was there tonight, they still searching, I will go too."

The smiled quickly turned into frown. "And you will go looking for him?" her dad said with great disappointed. "That not the daughter I raised." He looked down on his cards again.

"How many times you heard something, about Sirius being somewhere and went looking for him?" Jessica did not answer, she couldn't it was too many times, she lost count. "He clearly doesn't want to be found, so just let him go."

Jessica was fighting down the tears, "I can't, I really need to go." She gave her brother a kiss on top of his head. "I love you," she told him and crack, she was gone.

With the broom by her side she apparated not far from Hogwarts. Se flew past the dementors as fast as she could. She reached the castle and went in on foot. She spotted Remus walking towards the Great Hall.

"Remus," she said urgently. "Did you find him?"

"No, it looks like he is long gone." Remus said walking towards her now. "You look pale."

"Yeah, I flew in, past the dementors." He gave her a piece of chocolate.

"I always walk with a piece in my pocket," he added.

"Good idea, professor." Both of them smiled, the door of the Great Hall opened and Snape and Dumbledore came out.

"Any news Remus?" Dumbledore asked politely.

"No, we searched everywhere," he replied.

"Oh, Jessica hello, I should know you were coming," Dumbledore added when he realized she was there. Snape in the other hand was staring oddly at her since they came out, he gave her a small nod, and she nodded back.

"Hello, Remus send me an owl, I came at once."

"I would like a word with you," Dumbledore said to her. "Severus, would you mind going down and telling the dementors the search is over, and he is not inside the castle," Snape left at once. "Remus I think you should join us."

"My office then Headmasters?" Remus asked.

"Yes, please."

On the way to the office, Dumbledore was telling Jessica what Sirius had done and she couldn't believe it. He had slashed the Fat Lady portrait when she refused to let him in.

Jessica sat down when they got to Remus office, while he was serving three cups of tea. She got the feeling they were waiting for her to say something, but she did not know what.

"His actions are not of an innocent man." Dumbledore finally broke the silence.

"He is making things worse," said Remus.

They were right, he was up to something, and whatever it was, it was not good. "You are right, he is not acting normal."

"I will still try to get to him first and question him about everything, just so we know from his own mouth if he is guilty or not. I am assuming Fudge you will give the green light to the dementors to perform the kiss anytime now," said Dumbledore with great concern.

Jessica insides turned just with the thought of Sirius soul being sucked out.

"I will leave you two to talk," said Dumbledore again, standing up getting ready to leave.

"Could you please give me permission to use to Remus fireplace to go back home? I don't want to fly by the dementors again."

"Of course," Dumbledore walked over to the fireplace and whispered something. "Good night." He said before he left.

They talked for a little bit, before Jessica left. She used floo powder and went to her parents house once more, since her apartment did not have a fireplace.

She saw her brother sleeping face down on the table.

"Willy, wake up," she said poking him gently.

He opened his eyes. "You are back, any luck?"

"No, he was gone again."

"Sorry."

"It's okay, you really should get to bed now." She told him.

"I still need to finish this essay, I will go in a minute," she noticed he had his books out. "Mom, was really sad, you should've stayed."

"I know, I won't go looking for him again. I will spend the night here. Mom is right, I need to snap out of it."

She said good night and went up to her room, and it was just as she left. Except she opened her closet and saw a pair of new pajamas. She laughed quietly at the thoughtfulness of her mom.


	5. The Dream

As the days went by Jessica started feeling better about her decision, slowly she began to agree and accept that Sirius would never come back to her. Still with great sadness in her heart, but in the other hand, for the first time in years she was trying to look brightly into her future, hoping something better was just around the corner.

Remus went to visit her one evening and insisted that Jessica stopped by Hogwarts the next day. Gryffindor would be playing against Ravenclaw, and it was about time she went see Harry play, a lot of people told her he was really good, but she never went to go see him playing.

She got at Hogwarts after breakfast and students were already walking to the Quidditch field.

"Hi Remus," she said when she got to the teachers stand, where most of them were already sitting waiting for the game to start.

"Hi Jessica, I wondered if you're coming or not," Remus said giving Jessica a space to sit by him.

Snape joined them a short time afterwards gave her a nod and sat down behind her.

The game was really good, the Gryffindor team was really fantastic, reminded her a lot of the team she used to play at when she was in school, several times Remus made comments comparing the present team to the one Jessica used the play, thinking in the same lines Jessica was.

Gryffindor won, Harry caught the snitch right after the performed a remarkable patronus shield, on three dementors that came wondering inside the field. After the match they found out the dementors were actually some Slytherin boys trying to sabotage the game.

It felt great to be back at Hogwarts, she spend the day with Remus, and they had a enjoyable time together, it was the first time and years that she was actually able to talk about her Hogwarts friends and not be depressed about it, they shared great memories. Before dinner Harry came down to see Remus and was happy to find Jessica there, making her day even better. She joined them for dinner sitting on the Gryffindor table.

Dumbledore invited her to come sit on the staff table, but she said. "No, I rather sit here for old times sake."

After dinner she went down to Hogsmeade to buy some things her mom asked, she also took the time to send it all with an owl. The air was chilly and she knew it was because of the dementors, she hurried past them and met Snape coming back from Hagrid hut.

"What were you doing there?" Jessica asked.

"Went to go get some ingredients for the wolfbane potion, I got the unfortunate job of making it every month. What are you still doing here?"

"I am not sure," Snape was eyeing her uncomfortably. "I had a great day, and since I don't have to work tomorrow and I not in a hurry to go home."

"So, you being here has nothing to do with Sirius?"

"Of course not Severus, what is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, someone has to be aiding Sirius, I am still trying to find out how he got inside on Halloween night."

"I wonder the same, but I honestly don't think no one is helping him in," she said starting to feel annoyed.

"Do you still think he is innocent?" he asked very dry.

"I don't think so, I agree with Dumbledore, something is wrong he is not acting like a innocent man," she said quietly.

Snape stared for a second. "Do you still love him?"

Her whole body reacted to the question, her legs felt like it was hit by a Jelly leg jinx, her heart was screaming at her saying _yes. _"No," she said coldly. Snape did not say anything. "Do you need help with that potion?" Jessica and her friends research a lot during school trying to find the perfect potion, so she was quite good making it.

"Well, I guess that would be okay." She joined him walking back to the castle.

They made the potion and Jessica volunteered to take it to Remus, he would be needing it in couple of days. It was really late at night, but Remus was still awake. She was ready to say bye when they heard a commotion out in the hall.

"I wonder what is wrong," Remus said opening his office door, he saw McGonagall hurrying towards him.

"We need your help, we are searching the castle again. Sirius Black made it all the way to Harry Potter dormitory."

Jessica jumped out of her chair. "What?"

McGonagall was surprised to see Jessica still there. "He woke Ronald Weasley, he went for the wrong bed, the boy screamed he ran for it."

"I will help," said Jessica in shock.

The three joined the search, and it took him till dawn to finally agree the once again fled without a trace.

"I need you to sign this," Fudge came in her office, just when she was about to leave.

"What is it?" She had plans for the night so quickly she got the piece of parchment and was already half way signing it when Fudge replied.

"Is the document that gives the dementors permission to perform the kiss on Sirius Black," he said calmly and even a little coldly.

She froze. "What?"

"Well, the committee decided this afternoon, this is getting too dangerous, something has to be done."

Jessica couldn't finish her signature, she stood there, frozen, the top of the quill shacking madly.

"Jessica, please just sign it." Fudge insisted. "I thought we're all in the same page on this, the man is mad, has to be stopped, he deserves it."

"No one deserves this fate," she put her quill down, without finishing.

Fudge sat down and was now rubbing his forehead with a hand. "If he deserves it or not, is not for you to decide, it has been decided already, and you can't stop it."

"And if I don't sign it?"

"Well, still doesn't matter. I am the Minister of Magic," he said with great pride. " I can easily overrule you."

"Why won't you go ahead and do that then," she said.

"If you comes to it I will. Let me add that if you don't sign it you will be frowned upon, you will put you career in great danger, I am sure you don't want that, specially for something as silly as this."

"I can't stop it then?"

"I am afraid not," he replied. They stared a few seconds. "Please just sign it," he added.

She slowly finished her signature, her heart sinking in every letter she wrote. She felt like crying, but did not want to give Fudge the chance to see weakness. When she was done, he just took the parchment away, without a word and left.

Since her last search for Sirius, Jessica was meeting Severus frequently. She thought it was perfect since she used to be alone and now she was going to see Severus or Remus every other night. They often just met at Hogwarts, Severus would go get Jessica by the gate of the grounds to let her in, security was extremely tight.

That night she was supposed to go meet him again, but couldn't get herself to do it, by the time she apparated in her apartment she was in tears. She figured it was a good idea to send him a message.

"Expeto Patronum," and a bear like dog came out of her wand, she sobbed harder for a little bit.

"I am not feeling well, and can't come to the castle tonight, please let Severus know," she waived her wand again after she said that. "Take this message to Remus Lupin at Hogwarts." The dog was gone and a jet of silver light flew out the window.

The reason why she send the message to Remus and not Severus was because she knew how Severus would react to see Sirius patronus flying in, with a message from Jessica. She had lied to him, saying she did not love Sirius anymore and that is why their friendship got strong once again, she couldn't bear to lose Severus too.

In less then five minutes Remus apparated in her living room, she did not jump because deep inside she knew he was coming.

"How long?" he asked. "How long have you been producing a dog?"

"Since tonight," she said with a silent sob.

Remus finally realized she was crying and hugged her. "Dumbledore is coming, he was with me when you patronus came and he wished to come," shortly after he spoke they heard a knock on the door, Remus waived his wand, the door opened and Dumbledore came in.

"Oh dear, is okay." Dumbledore said as soon as he came in. "What happened?"

Jessica tried to keep calm, and told them about the destiny that was waiting Sirius, the dementor kiss.

"I was afraid of that, that is just horrible." Dumbledore said, taking his wand out, making a cup of tea appear. "Drink this, helps you come down."

He was right one sip made her feel a little better, and the feeling increased as she drank more.

"I will stay true to my word, I will try to find Black first and I am sure Remus will be glad to help," Remus quickly nodded. "I will do all that I can to change this, a dementor kiss is a horrible fate, there are other ways to punish and imprison a wizard, and I will see to that."

"But Fudge told me nothing can't be done, he is the Ministry of Magic _I can overrule all_" she said mimicking his voice.

"And I am Albus Dumbledore, more persuasive and ten Ministry of Magic put together," he gave her a half smile. "Don't worry, everything will be fine. Get to bed and rest, tomorrow I will start working my magic."

"Thank you, I will go to sleep as soon as I can."

Remus gave a small laugh. "That means she will cry all night." Jessica blushed a little bit.

"Here," Dumbledore took a small white bottle out of his robe and put a single drop into her tea. "Make sure you are in bed before finishing your tea, it will make you sleep and have sweat dreams." And he left.

Remus stayed until she went to bed and waited for her to take her tea, in matter of seconds she was fast asleep.

Jessica opened her eye and the day was so bright she couldn't focus, seemed like a great big white wall stood inches from her nose. She took a big breath and her lungs filled with salty air, she heard rushing waves close by. Slowly her eyes got used to the brightness and she found herself in a beach, no one to be seen in what looked to be miles and miles of white glittery sand.

She went to the shore and the let the cold ocean touch her toes. She walked along shore line, admiring her surrounding, the waters were crystal clear in the most beautiful shade of blue she ever seen, she was walking towards a mountain that appeared to be end of the beach, behind her the sand and ocean went as far as she could see.

A single chair came to her view now and she did not hesitate to go sit down and take a break, seemed like she walked for a hour or more, but she wasn't tried, the feeling of peacefulness was just overwhelming. Now that she was sitting she spotted on the distant horizon little mountains in the middle of the ocean, it was the most beautiful place she ever been to.

Deep inside her she wished she had something to do, and at the same time a book appeared on her lap, _The Goncourt Journals_. She laughed at the convenience, since the book she wanted to read the most dropped on her lap. She read for hours and hours, the most interesting stories of two brothers, despite all the difficult changes going around them at the time they lived, their life's were full of trills and passion.

Someone was now walking along the shore where Jessica was a few hours ago, but it was so far she couldn't even tell if the person was a child or a grown up, man or a woman. Trying to ignore the new event she went back to her book. Another few minutes went by and she almost forgot about the person, she took another look, and the person was much closer, she could see now it was a girl on her teens years.

"Hold on," she said jumping to her feet. She took another look and there was no mistake on what she saw. A beautiful girl was now walking towards Jessica, her brilliant green eye looking straight at her friend, her dark red long hair floated like silk as the wind touched it. "Lily," Jessica finally said.

Lily gave her a wide smile and held her hand, she then broke eye contact and looked to the mountain on the end of the beach.

"Do you want me to go there?" Jessica asked.

Lily nodded but didn't say a word. Dropping the book on the chair Jessica started going where Lily wanted her to go. The two friends walked to together, so close to the water that the waves would come and go getting her feet wet. Lily walked a little faster than Jessica, pulling her hand, giving a impression Jessica was being dragged.

The true is, Jessica felt like the was gliding not walking, her eye fixed on the back of her friend's head, Lily once and a while would look back, with the same big smile as before. Jessica was so astonished with her friends presence that she didn't even noticed a big ship, with pearly white sails coming to view. The waves of the ocean died down and the waters were now calm and still, the lake was as big as the ocean, and it sat on the bottom of the mountain. Lily let go of Jessica hand and broke into a run to a pier that took her to the ship and vanished out of sight. Jessica followed.

The pier was made of solid rock, resembling marble. Jessica looked down below the water and there was no support under the it, the pier was floating on top of the water but standing like it normally would on a hard floor.

Before she could go inside the ship she was greeted by Lily and James. Both with the same wide smile. James put his hand on Jessica shoulder and pressed it gently. The pair moved aside and a third person came to the picture. It was the seventeen year old version of Sirius, standing there, with his hand on his pocket looking casual.

Jessica ran to him, he opened his arms welcoming her, she hugged him tightly, throwing him out of balance for a second. Jessica hugged him tighter and tighter, Sirius in the other hand held her softly running his finger on her back.

She felt a third hand on her back, making her break the embrace and looked back, it was James, he pointed to the helm on the captain deck and Sirius held her hand like Lily did and pulled her to the deck, she got hold of the helm, in the front of the ship she heard a sound of chains and magically an anchor was pulled up.

The ship moved gracefully through the calm waters, Jessica was holding the helm, Sirius was with his arm around her shoulders. Lily and James were bellow looking over the passing waters. Having a big ship in her control gave her great strength and sense of power she never felt before.

Tall mountains were in each side of the ship, the ocean was no longer visible. Jessica watched James and Lily come up where she was, James slowly took hold of the helm and Jessica let go, she put her arm around Sirius as they walked down to the main deck.

For a moment she wished they would speak to her, she wanted to hear Sirius voice again, but had the same time she felt her heart bust if gladness to be on Sirius arms again. She looked down to the water, like Lily and James were doing, she saw her reflection on the water, she was seventeen again.

Jessica was facing Sirius and he was holding her close, one of his hand around her waist the other on her neck, they were so close their nose touched gently, Jessica slowly tipped her head to the side, Sirius moved closer and kissed her softly.

It was the most wonderful thing Jessica ever felt. She leaned her head on his chest and was listening to his heart beat as he stroked her hair. Jessica lost track of time, she did not even know how long she stood there, lost in his arms.

She felt chill up her spine and turned around, it was brighter then normal. Where once a blue sky was, stood a great big wall instead. James and Lily had joined them, no one was guiding the ship anymore and they were sailing right to the wall. Sirius was still holding her, his hand on her stomach and his chin resting on her shoulder, Lily held her again, and Jessica closed her fingers of her other free hand tightly around Sirius arm.

With the understanding their journey was coming to end she waited to the ship to meet the wall. Before long the bowsprit touched the wall and it disappeared, her impression was the their were sailing through the wall without any struggle. When they were inches for the wall she closed her eye and waited.

Few seconds went by and she opened her eye, a fresh smell of vanilla filled her nose. She was back at her apartment.

Jessica sat on her bed, wishing she could go back. She looked at her bed stand and the tea cup Dumbledore gave was still sitting there.

"Dumbledore," she sighted. It was a dream, a sweat dream, just like he said.


	6. Gone Again

Jessica kept in touch with Dumbledore. Jessica, Remus and Dumbledore set their mind on finding Sirius and they were taking it very seriously.

"Lets just hope Snape doesn't find him first," said Remus, as she was leaving after the Quidditch final, which Gryffindor won.

Her visits to the castle were daily now, if Sirius was to show up again it would be soon, school would be out in couple of weeks and whatever he wanted to do she knew it needed to be done before the end of the term.

Severus was not in the best mood, after Gryffindor won against Slytherin Jessica quickly joined the Gryffindor celebration without saying a word to Severus. Now every time they meet Severus had a sour face, spoke to her quickly and was on his way. She was used to his mood swings and knew he would come around soon, and for now a little separation was good, gave her more time to be on the look out, she knew Sirius would try again.

It was a warm summer night, and for the first time she did not look forward going to Hogwarts. Tonight they were going to kill a hippogriff, and Jessica felt sick to her stomach just thinking about it. Hagrid, the gamekeeper, was the owner of the beast, and he applied for a appeal, but Fudge made it clear to Jessica that he was not going to clear the charges.

She went straight to Remus office, where she knew she would be far away from Hagrid's hut.

"Come in," said a horsy voice shortly after she knocked.

"Hi, it's me," she said and came and sat across from where Remus was sitting. On the table there was a old piece of parchment.

"You really scared me there for a moment. Do you recognize this?" He said pointing to the parchment.

"No. What is it?"

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he gave it a tap, and the familiar thin lines began to spread throughout the parchment, and word appeared in curly green words.

"The Marauder's Map," her mind filling with memories from her time in school using the map with her friends to sneak out of the castle. "How did you get it back? I thought Filch had it."

"I thought so too, but I confiscated the map from a student."

"Whom?" she asked.

"Harry, he was using it to sneak to Hogsmeade," he said calmly.

"Like father like son," Jessica said, looking at the map she saw students gathering in the Great hall for dinner. "Aren't you going down and eat?"

"No, full moon, I like to drink my wolfbane potion with an empty stomach. Snape should bring it to me after he eats."

They stayed for couple of hours looking at the map, she saw Fudge arrive just when the students were starting to clear out from the Great hall, they watched Harry, Hermione and Ron walk away from the castle, they knew at once they were going to go see Hagrid. Jessica quickly went to look out of the window that had a clear view of the path that took them to Hagrid hut.

"They are using the invisibility cloak," she told Remus, who was still looking at the map. She came back and the watched the three of them disappear from the edge of the map.

"You look tired," said Remus looking at her for a second and going back to the map.

"I am not sleeping well at night."

"You should go home, you are staying late every night. He won't try to come to the castle tonight, not with Fudge here, he is not that foolish."

"Do you think so?" she asked.

"Yes, and I will be watching, the map doesn't lie, if he comes near the castle I will know," he said.

"I could use some rest, send me a message if you see him."

"I will," he said smiling but not taking his eyes out of the map.

"Okay, see you tomorrow."

She used Remus fireplace, it was still linked to her parents house, trying not to wake her elderly mom and dad she silently left the house using the front door and walked a block before apparating in her apartment.

A young man was sitting on her kitchen table, which made her jump with joy.

"Willy!" she gave her brother a full hug, and both sat back on the table.

"Came to see you, I hope is okay, its late," he said apologetically.

"Of course is okay, you are welcome here anytime you want."

"I am officially done with school. Took my last test tonight," he told her.

"Lets celebrate then," she went to the refrigerator and got two drinks.

"Where were you so late anyway?" he asked.

"I went to see Remus," she said plainly.

Her brothers face changed. "I don't like being lied to."

"I know that."

"So why are you lying?" he asked but she didn't say anything. "You were looking for Sirius again, weren't you?"

"Things changed Willy. I need to find him before the Minister does," she went on telling him about the dementors and what they would do to Sirius with he was found by the wrong people.

"That is horrible," he said looking a bit pale.

"What do you plan to do now that you are done with school?"

"Find a job, and I guess a place to stay, I don't want to move back our parents house, they finally have the place all to themselves."

"Come stay here then," she said happily. "Have Remus bedroom, its empty anyway."

"I don't know…" he said

"Just come, stay until you find a place to stay, I will like your company." He still didn't say anything. "Oh please." she begged.

"Okay, but just for couple of months," he said. "I am hungry, do you have something to eat?"

"I can fix something really quick," she stood up and went to the kitchen again.

Before she could get started cooking she heard a distinct _crack _of someone apparating there. She looked around and didn't see anyone. Willy was looking somewhere below the kitchen counter. Jessica walked over to the other side of the counter, where Willy was staring at and found a house-elf.

"You Mss Thompson?" he asked her.

"Yes, do you have a message for me? Is it from Hogwarts?"

The house elf looked over where Willy was sitting.

"Is okay, he is my brother," she quickly added.

"Headmaster send me here. He want you at the castle," the house-elf said squeakily.

"Is it Sirius? Do they have him?" said asked desperate.

He nodded. "Dumbledore wants Mss to apparate with me, there is no time, I take you inside of the castle." He raised his small hand.

Without hesitating she took it. "I need to go Willy."

"I know, hurry," he answered and with a blink of an eye she was now at Hogwarts.

"Thank you," she told the house-elf and broke into a run. She was near the kitchen and was not sure where to go.

She hurried to Dumbledore office keeping a prayer in her heart, hoping Sirius was okay and hoping Dumbledore or Remus were the firsts to get to him. She stared at the stone gargoyle realizing she did not know the password.

"Miss Thompson, what a pleasure to see you here," she heard a voice behind her. Looking around she saw Nearly Headless Nick.

"I need to find Dumbledore, do you know where he is?"

"Oh yes, last time I saw him, he was at the hospital wing." Jessica was running again, Nick went beside her, floating, keeping up without a struggle. "They got Sirius Black, is that why you are here?"

"Do you know who got him?" She asked gasping for air.

"Yes, I do. Snape brought him to the castle. I was looking to see if I could take a look at Black before they dementors kissed him…" Nick froze, so did Jessica.

They had turned left in a corridor and they spotted three dementors leaving a classroom and taking a corridor to the right nearby.

"Oh my, looks like they are leaving," said Nick following the dementors.

Jessica eyes filled with tears. "I am too late," she whispered, walking to find Dumbledore in the hospital wing. All the hope had left her, breathing was extremely hard, she felt like the was a snitch glued to her throat making hard for the air to pass by.

She was almost there when she met Severus. She expected to see him looking overjoyed, but he looked very angry, with her face buried with tears she gathered strength to speak.

"How could you Severus?" she said softly.

"How could I? How could I turn in the man who is the reason why Lily Evans is dead?" he said coldly. "I am the man that needs to ask you, how could you not?"

"He would never sell James and Lily out," she said crying harder.

"AND YET THEY ARE BOTH DEAD," Snape shouted.

"Mss Thompson, when did you get here?" said Fudge who was accompanied by Dumbledore.

"Just now, when did it happen?" she asked weakly.

"What?" asked Fudge.

"The kiss, did he saying something, I mean before…" she couldn't finish, the thought of it was too horrible.

"Surely Severus told you Sirius Black escaped," said Dumbledore.

Jessica looked at Snape and he quickly looked away avoiding eye contact. "No, he didn't."

"Potter," Snape muttered.

"Not again please," said Fudge. "I had enough of your nonsense. I am leaving. Good bye. See you tomorrow Mss. Thompson." He walked away quickly.

"What about Harry, Severus?" Jessica asked.

"I will find out how he helped Black out, I know he did it," he said bitterly.

"That is quite enough," Dumbledore cut him off. "Mss Thompson if you please could come to my office."

She walked with Dumbledore, none of them spoke the whole time.

"Take a sit," he said politely when they were inside his office.

"Do you know how he escaped?" she asked.

"Of course. Severus was right, Harry helped Sirius escape." Dumbledore went on telling Jessica what happened that night.

He told her he spoke to Sirius earlier and believed him to be innocent, he wasn't the secret keeper at the time the Potters were murdered, it was Peter Pettigrew, who fake his own death to frame Sirius in front of several muggles to eye witness, Peter was an animagi and could take shape of a rat at will, and he lived like that for fourteen years.

Sirius saw the picture of the Weasley family vacationing in Egypt, and recognized Peter as a rat, on Ron Weasley shoulders. The whole year he's been trying to get to Peter. Sadly as Sirius, Peter also escaped, so they had no prove that Sirius was innocent.

Harry and Hermione went back in time after Sirius was captured and rescued Buckbeak the hippogriff that was going to be executed and Sirius took off riding it.

"I am sure Harry will have more details for you, You can come see him before the end of classes," he added. "Tomorrow it won't be a happy day for the Ministry, I suppose is better if you retire for the night, you will have a full day tomorrow."

"Where is Remus?" she asked.

"I forgot to tell you, he did not take his potion tonight, he is out there in the forest, Harry will know more about that too," he said taking a look out of his window, down to the forest. "Dobby," he said, and the same house-elf appeared. "Would you please take Jessica back." the elf nodded, Dumbledore turned to Jessica. "Try not to look so miserable. He escaped, he is out there, free."

"I didn't even see him," she said, feeling childish.

"I am sure you will see him soon, just give it sometime."

"Thank you for everything."

"My pleasure, " he smiled.

She grabbed Dobby's arm again and they were back in her apartment. Willy was gone.


	7. The Other Minister

It was impossible to sleep that night. Jessica didn't even try to go to bed, because she knew that would make her frustrated, she sat on her balcony looking at the stars like she used to do. Her heart filled with relief, looking at the sky trying to picture Sirius flying freely with Buckbeak. At times she would feel a little sadness, she wanted to see him, she wanted to know he was alright.

The stars in the sky were now fading, she could see a bright light in the horizon, of the sun wanting to come up. She dozed off for a few minutes, but woke up when Willy came in.

"Good morning," said Willy. "Did you stay out here all night?"

"Yes, I couldn't sleep," she told him everything that happened last night.

"Wow, he escaped, yet again," he said looking shocked. "Your boss will be a pain today, good luck with that."

She laughed. "Yes, It will be a charming day."

"I brought my stuff, is not much, I took most of it back to my bedroom at mom's. That reminds me, she wants to hear what happened to Sirius, I will call her."

"Thanks, I need to change to go work."

Jessica went to her bedroom and started getting ready, her mind fixed on Sirius, trying to picture where he was at.

"Willy, I need to get going," she told Willy, who was half way unpacking. "Help yourself to some food, I will be back later to cook you dinner."

"Okay, I will be leaving as soon as I am done here," he said. "You got an owl," he added pointing the living room and an owl was waiting for her there.

She got the letter and recognized Remus hand writing at once.

_After last night events I resigned, _

_I will need a place to stay for a few days_

_Wondering if it's okay to stay with you._

_I am already packing, please write me back. _

_Remus Lupin_

Jessica wrote him back, telling him to come "Willy leave couple of hangers for Remus in the closet he is coming to stay for a few days." She than got some of her book out the living room, took them to her bedroom and set the on the floor by her bed, leaving two empty shelves for Remus books.

The Ministry was packed with press. Looked like reporters from all over of the world wanted to know how Sirius Black slipped through Fudge fingers again. She went straight to his office and found him sitting on the table paralyzed and pale.

"Good morning," she said but he did not reply. "It's a jungle out there."

"Do you think if I ignore them long enough they will leave?" he asked.

"I don't think so, not until you go out there and talk to them," she replied. Taking him a tall glass of water, she was actually felling pretty bad for him.

"I have no idea what to tell them," he said after drinking a mouth full of water. "What do you think I should do?'

She sat across the table from him.

"When you speak to them, try to focus on the good side of things. Tell them you succeeded in keeping the student Black was after safe, it wouldn't hurt to put some blame on the dementors also. Try to show them you regret the event but be firm saying all that could've been done you did."

"Yeah, that is really good," he said.

"Don't take questions, that can be problematic. Also I think you should step out of this search, give it to somebody else the job, so if it happens again is not your face in the front page. Give the job to the Auror Department and don't be involved anymore."

"Fetch Rufus Scrimgeour for me. But before you go write down what I should say, I will try to memorize it."

Jessica wrote a small speech and gave him. She went to her office, right by Fudge and wrote a note to Scrimgeour to come to see her. About ten minutes later he knocked her door.

"Fudge needs a word," she said and he followed her to Fudge office. "Here he is," she told Fudge, who was still reading his speech.

He put the parchment down and pointed to the chair across from him, asking Scrimgeour to take a seat, and so he did. Jessica went to stand behind Fudge. There was a minute of silence.

"Mss Thompson, would you please tell Mr. Scrimgeour why he is here," Fudge finally said.

She felt really annoyed. "As you are well aware of, Black escaped again," she said. "Since is impossible to know where he is heading now, it's time to involve our best to do this task, the Minister would like to give you full powers to proceed the search. You may use the best of your department to assist you, but the dementors will no longer be used, they must go back where they belong."

Fudge looked at her with outrage, she decided add the dementors part for Sirius sake. Jessica ignored Fudge reaction and kept looking firmly at Scrimgeour. Fudge finally relaxed and nodded in agreement.

"Very well," said Scrimgeour. "I will do all that I can."

"Okay then, should we all go out there and give the reporters what they want, and send them away. I bet no one is getting anything done today, with this carnival outside," said Fudge.

"I will go first," Jessica said.

She lead the way and the two followed. They got the where the massive amount of people were waiting and Jessica called out for silence, the place became really quiet.

"The Minister of the Magic will address you at this time," she started saying. "He will talk about the events that took place at Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcrafts, and the plans for the future operations. I must ask you not to interrupt him. No questions will be answered at this time. The Minister of The Magic," Jessica stood back and Fudge went forward taking her place.

"Good morning, good morning to you all," he said with a weak smile. "Is with deep regret I come to confirm rumors that we did in fact captured Sirius Black late last night, but he managed to escape. But we are very proud to say that we succeeded in stop him doing what…." Jessica stopped paying attention.

Scrimgeour looked pleased with himself, she felt chills on her spine when she realized that man was going to do all he could to capture Sirius, he was a man of action. A few minutes passed and Fudge turned to Scrimgeour, and for the first time the people were applauding.

Fudge went to stand with Jessica letting Scrimgeour speak a few words. He went on giving a very boring speech in how his department was capable of the job, and if someone could catch Black, he was the man to do it. The crowd cheered some more as he stepped back.

Jessica once more took the stand. "That will do for today, now the Minister would like you all the exit the Ministry in an orderly way please, we wish you all a good day."

Several hands went shooting in the air. "No question at this time please," she quickly reminded them.

"Is it true you and Sirius Black were engaged, soon to be married?" a blond reported asked Jessica, who only stared in shock. "Maybe the reason he hasn't been caught is because you don't him to be found." Jessica couldn't move, she looked at the woman with great curiosity, trying to make her mind if the reporter was just trying to hit a soft spot, or if she really knew that Jessica and Sirius really did plan to get married. "Are you hiding Black? Mss Thompson?"

Several people gasped. Jessica felt Fudge hold her arm firmly.

"That is enough Rita. Now let me assure you all that Mss Thompson has my full confidence, she has supported Sirius search full hearted, and whatever is on her and Blacks past, is just that, history," he then turned and dragged Jessica with him.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Just don't make a fool out of me please," Fudge said, going in his office and closing the door behind him.

Jessica got home to find Remus and Willy already waiting for her, the table set with a fully cooked meal.

"You guys shouldn't have," she said as soon as she came in.

"Oh yes we should, is the least we can do, you don't need to take both of us in, but you did without hesitating," said Remus helping her to a chair.

"You keep this up and I will never let you leave," she said already helping herself to some food.

It was a wonderful night, the three of them talked for hours, Remus told Jessica his own version of what happened the night Sirius escaped. He said shortly after she left, he spotted Sirius on the map, taking Ron and Peter inside the secret tunnel under the Whomping Willow, he caught up with them in the Shrieking Shack, and found Sirius. He told her, that Peter was the one of betrayed Lily and James and Sirius was trying to get Peter all year. Once they tried to get back to the castle to turn Peter in, the full moon was already out and Remus transformed. Last thing Remus remembers was Sirius holding him back.

As the sun set Remus drank his potion and retired for the night. Willy looked terrified for a few moments as he watched this massive werewolf coming out of the bedroom and it came to the kitchen, where Jessica and Willy were putting dishes away. Jessica took a steak out of the fridge gave it a tap with her wand and it defrosted, Remus took the steak and went back to the bedroom.

"Are you sure he is harmless?" Willy asked.

"Oh yes, it's just Remus, still as tender as a person can possibly be."

Next morning Jessica went back to work, she sat in her office with a copy of the Daily Prophet, scanning it quickly till she got to the page she was looking for, it was Rita Skeeter. **Heartache in the Ministry**.

Early yesterday Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic

gave a press conference giving information

that most people found satisfactory.

However, the questions regarding

Jessica Thompson, the Minister right hand

and Sirius Black they refused to answer.

What most people don't know,

is that the two of them were

madly in love and had plans to get

married, as soon as Jessica came

back from her job abroad.

Sixteen years ago, as Sirius Black

said his goodbyes to Jessica he gave

her a ring, yes an engagement, with the

promise they would marry at her return.

To this day Jessica wears the ring,

obviously, she still thinks they

have a future, bless her.

As we all know, by the time she was back

Black was already a wanted man.

Captured shortly after her return.

How can we forget Jessica visit to the Azkaban

last summer? A mere three days later

Sirius Black mysteriously escaped.

Coincidence? I think not.

For the past couple of months Jessica

visited Hogwarts every night.

She was there the night Sirius vanished

again, making things look indeed very

suspicious. Now with Scrimgeour on

the case lets hope Jessica will

not be involved, therefore we may

see a closure to all this mess.

Jessica felt like she could punch something. She looked at the ring Sirius gave her. "How does she know?" Thinking it was the safest thing to do she took it off and placed it carefully in one of the desk drawer.

A note came flying into her office and it was from Fudge, asking her to come to his office. Hoping he was not going to question her about the article she apparated inside his office.

Fudge was not alone Mr. Brisson, Jessica old boss and Head of the Department of Mysteries, was with him.

"Good Morning," she said looking at the two man.

"Mr. Brisson has a request, I thought is not up to me to decide, it concerns you, and you should decide, not me"

"As you know the wizardry community in Brazil is increasing tremendously, since you discovered young Pacon Iawi we started looking more carefully in that area, and since then found several other people if magical abilities. One thing you did not know is that in the Southeaster part of Brazil already had a small wizardry community at the time you found Pacon.

"Couple of years ago we decided it was time for them to start being self sufficient and not depend on us for everything, and we helped them build their own Ministry. I am sure you know that."

"Yes, Pacon wrote me, he is the Minister,"

"Indeed, after all the training he had, trained by the best in my department, mostly by you, the highly respected Minister right hand, none man stood a chance against Pacon down there.

"I've been in touched with Pacon, and he came to me asking for a favor."

"And what is it?" Jessica asked.

"He wanted me to ask Cornelius to let you go down there and help him for a few days. You could aid him a lot with all your knowledge helping run the Ministry," said Brisson.

"Why did he come to you and not straight to us?" Jessica asked again.

"He still learning, one of his first lessons will have to be making him realize he is powerful enough to request a meeting straight with the Minister, and not go through me first. But of course, I am happy to do it."

"Are you okay with me going Cornelius?" Jessica asked.

"Oh yes, give them the aid they need, for as long as is necessary. You will still need to help me around here, but I can handle most of it on my own," said Fudge.

"I will go then," Jessica told Brisson.

"Wonderful, Pacon has given you permission to apparate there, that will make traveling much easier. Use Floo powder the first time, it will take to the Ministry building."

"Thank you. I will just go now, see what he needs and find out how long I will stay for," both of them nodded she went to the fireplace and traveled to the Brazilian Ministry of Magic.

She looked around and found that the place as much smaller then the Ministry in London, but still it was just a glamorous. Not wasting time she went to the front desk.

"I am here to see the Minister," Jessica told the receptionist.

"Do you have an appointment?" the lady ask.

"No, but he is expecting me."

"Name?"

"Jessica Thompson."

"Go right on in, his office is the last door on the corridor to the left," the lady said.

"Thank you."

Before she got to the office, Pacon came blasting out of it, full smile on his face. He looked a lot different then she remembered, he was wearing a scarlet red robe and was just shining with confidence.

He gave her a warm hug and closed his office door, after they went in.

"How are you doing?" Jessica asked.

"Just fantastic," he said still smiling. "Lets not waste time, lets do what I called you here for."

Jessica thought it was weird he seemed not to want to have a friendly chat before getting to work.

"What do you need help with?" she asked.

"I don't," he said looking clever. "I made up a story so you leaving would not look suspicious. I want you to see something. Can you still remember the house you lived in sixteen years ago?"

"Yes, of course."

"So just apparate there. Count of three please. One, two, three.

Crack

They are now surrounded by tall trees, but where the house Jessica used to live was supposed to be there was only a empty space. Pacon then leaned to her ear and whispered the address. Suddenly a little cabin made of wood and dry dirt came to view.

"What are you hiding?" She asked him.

"You will see."

Both of them went inside of the small house. Took a few seconds to realize a man was laying on the bed.

She got closer, and gasped. Laying on the bed, badly hurt and pale was Sirius Black.


	8. The Amazons

Jessica hurried to sit by him on the bed, getting all of the long hair out of his face, she saw it was badly bruised and with dry blood all over it.

"Look for a rag or something, I will try to clean this off," she told Pacon, who started looking for something she could use.

"I tried healing his cuts, it worked fine on most of his face, but I couldn't heal the one on the side of his mouth and on his back," he said while looking around.

Jessica turned Sirius to the side a little bit and saw gashes on his back from one side to the other.

"Do you know what did this to him?" Pacon asked giving her a damp dish towel.

"Yes, it was a werewolf," Jessica replied, trying to imagine what Remus would think if he saw Sirius like that.

"I know some good stuff that will heal this up, probably won't even leave a scar."

"Would you bring some chocolate too? He was attacked by dementors."

"Yes, I will be right back," he said and left.

Trying to clean most of the filth and blood out of his face, she could see now how thin he was, his face waxy, it looked like a skull of a corpse. The cut to the side of his mouth was indeed very deep. Once his face was clean she turned him to the side again and started cleaning his back.

Pacon came back with a bowl of a variety of crushed plants. While Jessica held Sirius on the side Pacon gently rubbed the mixture on the wounds.

"Just keep applying it every half a hour and it will heal, and here is the chocolate you asked," he said examining the gashes closely

Jessica got a small piece and put it in his mouth, and started rubbing the plants on his face.

"Where did you find him?" Jessica asked.

"I didn't, it was a wizard friend of mine. He called me because he saw the hippogriff and assumed the man was one of us. I recognized Black the moment I looked at him. I remembered when I first went to London for my training, you told me you believed Sirius was innocent. So I knew to come to you, before deciding what to do with him."

"Thank you," she said holding his hands.

"So you still believe he is innocent?" Pacon asked.

"I know he is innocent now," Jessica told Pacon all that she knew. "I am hoping he will tell me more once he wakes up. Where is the hippogriff?"

"My friend is watching over him. But he thinks it's mine, I modified his mind, he doesn't even remember he was the one that found Sirius and the hippogriff."

"Just brilliant," she said wishing Sirius was awake.

"Thanks, you guys can stay here as long as you need. Black is safe here, I don't think no one would recognize him," Pacon said brightly.

Jessica nodded.

"There is food on the refrigerator, anything else I can do for you before I go?" he asked.

"No it's okay, I will just watch over him."

Jessica sat by Sirius for hours, holding his bony hands. Every half a hour she would rub more of the plant mixture and she could see a big improvement already. After a few pieces of chocolate Jessica noticed the color coming back to his face, he didn't look as pale as before.

The cabin was now dark, Jessica remembered Remus and Willy had no idea where she was. Deciding Sirius was safe for few minutes she apparated back in her apartment.

"Jessica? You are early," Remus said when he saw her.

Jessica looked confused for a second and realized it was still day outside, she looked at her clock and it was mid afternoon.

"Remus I don't have a lot of time. _Muffliato. _You won't believe this. Remember Pacon?"

"Naturally, the Brazilian Minister," Remus said looking a little bit concerned.

"Yes, he found Sirius," she said with excitement. "Pacon is hiding him. Isn't it wonderful?"

"It is wonderful, I bet he is so happy to see you," said Remus.

"I hope he is, he is out of it, too weak I assume," she said. "I need you to go get him some new robes, and try to get him a wand" She went to her bedroom and got a bag full of gold galleons. "Try to go fast, I want to go back soon, in case he wakes up."

"Okay," without another word he was gone.

Jessica started packing a trunk full of her clothes, and some books. She also went to pack some food, she did not know of Pacon had there, but she wanted to make sure Sirius had some of the things he liked to eat. In about half a hour Remus was back.

"I went as fast as I could. There are five different robes there, two pairs of shoes, I hope I got the size right. I also got him socks and underwear. The wand was pretty hard, I told Ollivander it was for a friend and he was not happy, he sold me one that he thinks would be good to a vast group people," said Remus.

"Thank you, please let Willy know where I am, you can take my bedroom if you want. I need to get back," she said closing her trunk after putting Sirius things inside.

"When will I be able to see him?" Remus asked.

"I will send Pacon to get you once he wakes up."

"Okay, see you in a few days," said Remus giving her a warm hug.

"See you," said Jessica and left.

Sirius did not even move while she was gone, Jessica applied the plants as soon as she got back, and she did the same thing every half a hour throughout the night. When the sun was rising she went and made a tall cup of coffee, this was her second night without sleep and Jessica thought every second awake was worth it.

Next day Sirius started showing good signs of improvement, his face was totally healed and his back still needed a couple days more, but never the less it was healing pretty well. Around noon he started making small movements on his own, Jessica got the urge to shake him awake, but quickly overcame it and started making a chicken soup in case he woke up soon.

While the soup was cooking she went to apply some more plants and Sirius started muttering. She hesitated for a second.

"Sirius," she said. But he just kept on muttering. "Sirius, it's me, please wake up."

Sirius sat upward with a jump, Jessica moved a few inches back avoiding a collision. Sirius looked around for a few seconds.

"AAARRGG," he cried in pain.

"Sirius, please, lay back down, your wounds have not healed yet," she gently helped him back to his side. When he was comfortable she knelt by his bed.

"Where am I?" he asked weakly, Jessica could tell by the look on his face he was both, scared and in pain.

"You are in the Amazons, a friend of mine found you and contacted me," she said, and he softened his face, giving Jessica the impression he was no longer worried.

"Since when you have friends that live in the Amazons?" he asked again.

"This was my last post, when I worked of the Department of Mysteries," she answered. " I lived in this cabin for three years."

Sirius left out a small laugh. "You would think they can afford giving you a decent place you live," he said looking once again to the small one room cabin and its ceiling made of palm trees leafs.

"Compared to the houses around here, this is very decent," she explained.

Sirius took a big breath.

"Does it still hurt?" she asked.

"Yes, Remus got me really good didn't he?" he asked while trying to reach the wounds on his back. Jessica sat back on the bed and helped his hand to where the gashes were.

"He really did, you had gashes on you face too, but they already healed," she said.

Sirius touched his face, where the deep wound used to be. "Yeah, I remember now," he said.

"I think you should try to eat something, you are very weak," said Jessica.

"I don't think I can sit up long enough," he said trying to feel his back wounds again.

"Is okay I can feed you," Jessica went to get a bowl of the chicken soup. "I will need your blanket to support your head a little higher." Sirius gave her the blanket, she folded it and carefully put it under his head.

She gave him a spoon full of soup.

"I forgot how good your food is," said Sirius, savoring his first bite as much as he could.

"Oh, thank you, that is sweet." She kept on feeding him.

"This is so depressing, I can't even feed myself," he said.

"I find it romantic actually," she said smiling at him.

"I don't know in which planet this is romantic," Sirius was a little annoyed with the situation.

"It's been a pleasure to take care of you, I am enjoying every minute of it," said Jessica and for the first time their eye meet, she smiled again, but Sirius quickly looked the other way.

"I met Harry," he said silently.

"I know. He is wonderful, isn't he?" Jessica tried to hold his hand but he moved it out of reach. Sirius did not notice she tried to do that.

"Yes, great kid," Sirius smiled a bit for the first time. "I asked him to come live with me, he said he would come. But then Peter escaped, and I had to run again."

"Sirius, Dumbledore would not let you take Harry from his aunt house. The night Lily died, she shielded Harry from the killing curse, giving Harry a protection, Voldemort couldn't touch Harry, that is why he fell. Every summer when Harry goes back to their house the protection renews, because his aunt and mom share the same blood."

"I see, makes sense why he still going there instead of staying with a wizard family," he said.

"I tried taking him in a couple of times," she added.

"Did you?" he was pleased, she could see it in his eyes, wishing he would look at her.

"Yes," she said looking at his bare chest.

He was so skinny she could see all of his ribs bones. She ran her fingers on his chest, feeling each of his ribs, starting at the top going one by one till she felt the last one. She could not stop herself, and kept on going, touching his lower abs, she noticed there was no muscle left.

Sirius got hold of her hand and squeezed it gently, he moved her hand away from his body, dropping it back on her leg. She looked at him and he shook his head. Jessica wanted to be with him really bad, feeling slightly sad she decided to respect him and give him all the time he needed.

"Jessica, it really hurts, do you have something that will put me back to sleep?" he asked after a few moments of silence.

"I have a small travel size potion kit, I can try to put something together for you."

She went for her trunk and got a small box, took some ingredients out and started mixing them together. From the corner of her eye she could tell Sirius was looking at her, but didn't dare to look back, she pretended she didn't notice it.

"Here it is," she gave him a small amount of the potion. Gently getting the blanket under his head she covered him with it.

"Thank you for everything," he said before falling sleep.

For the past three days Jessica was longing for the moment Sirius woke up, imagining he would sweep her out of her feet and be so excited to see her there. Sure, _he was nice_, she kept thinking, but after all this time she expected much more.

Jessica was sitting outside the door of her cabin, with its door open ajar, so she could hear if Sirius woke up. The forest was dark but the sky was glimmering with thousand of stars. In the distance she heard the sounds of the jungle. Inside her, she searched desperately for peace, trying to concentrate on her surroundings, but the pain she felt inside was much stronger than all the beautiful things around her.

Her memory took her back to the day she visited Azkaban, Sirius was so pleased to see her, kissing her hands devoutly and saying I love you. _What changed?_ She asked herself over and over again, in a little more than a year Sirius love for her seemed to have vanished.

Her head leaned against the door frame, she was so tired, this was going to be her forth night without proper rest. She was now trying to figure out a way to make sure she would be awake every half a hour. Jessica was now meddling with her watch trying to make its alarm sound a lot louder, since it was a muggle product it was harder than she thought it would be.

_Crack. _She heard inside of the of the cabin. A desperate feeling came over her, thinking Sirius had left her there. She opened the door and looked straight at Sirius bed, but he was still fast asleep, he did not disapparate. She stood up pulling her wand out and slowly walking inside.

"Good Lord," she said when she saw Pacon standing behind the door holding a fruit basket. "You could've said something." Her heart racing while she put her wand away.

"And what?" He said smiling at her. "Miss the chance to scare you a bit?" he added putting the fruit basket on the table.

"Not funny," she said when Pacon started laughing a too hard for her taste.

"Yes it was," he said stopping laughing. "Anyway, I came to help you tonight, you need some sleep," those words rang through Jessica hears like a song. "I wanted to come earlier, but I got busy."

"I really need to rest, are you sure is okay?" she asked while sitting on the bed by Sirius.

"Yes, I will stay all night," he reassured. "I thought he would be awake by now."

"He woke up this afternoon, but he was in pain, so I put him back to sleep," she added in a sad tone of voice.

"I bet he was so happy to see you," said Pacon.

"I think he was, but not how I pictured. I don't think he loves me anymore," said Jessica while laying down on the bed by Sirius, making sure she was far enough not to touch him.

Pacon had an uneasy look on his eye, Jessica knew he was putting words together carefully. "Don't worry to much about it, you said he was in pain, maybe her was a little out of it," he finally said.

Jessica did not know what to say, she just closed her eyes, in no time she was fast asleep.

Though eye were closed, she felt the day light, she opened her eyes and it slowly started coming to focus, she was now facing where Sirius was laying, but took her a few seconds to realize Sirius was not there. Panicking, thinking he left, she sat up, and to her immediate relief she saw Sirius sitting on the kitchen chair, sealing an envelope.

"Good Morning," he said not looking at her. He gave the letter to a tiny owl who happily flew out the window. Jessica quickly tried fixing her hair before he looked at her, pulling it into a pony tale. "I wrote a letter to Harry telling him I am okay. I didn't want to wake you up, thought you needed the rest," he said casually looking at her.

"Thank you," she said sliding to the edge of the bed, trying to avoid looking at Sirius who was shirtless in front of her. "Where is Pacon?"

"He left a little while after I woke up," he said. "What a nice guy."

"He sure is," Jessica went to look at the wounds, as she walked Sirius followed her with his eyes, but Jessica was still avoiding looking at him. "Your wounds look much better today," she said examining it closely.

"Yeah, and they don't hurt like yesterday, still stings a bit, but I really can't complain." He was looking at his fingernails which were black with filth. "I really need a bath," he added.

"They only have shower here, and it's outside," she said getting her trunk open, and taking Sirius things out. "I asked Remus to go buy you some new robes." She started giving him a pile a clothes. "And a wand, of course."

Sirius dropped everything he was holding and held the wand tightly with both hands. He looked like a child on Christmas morning right after opening the present he was longing for.

"Thank you," he said with watering eyes.

"I hope it works well for you," she said feeling warm inside, sharing a little bit of Sirius radiating happiness.

"I am sure it will." He put his wand on top of his head, and his hair started shrinking, from his elbows to his shoulders. "Here is good," he said satisfied with his hair length. "Do you have a good spell for tangles?"

"Yes," she said smiling a bit of his vanity. She place her wand right were Sirius had his, the hair started untangling, until it did not look messy no longer, for a few seconds they exchanged tender looks. "Let me use impervius charm on your back, so your wounds don't get wet."

"Good idea," He said breaking eye contact.

Jessica carefully placed the charm around his wounds. "I think it will be alright," she said and he turned around facing her. "You better go wash that hair of yours, if there was a competition for greasy hair, you would win. Even Severus doesn't stand a chance," she said in an attempt to make him laugh.

His reaction was completely different, his once happy radiation turned to anger. He stormed out of the cabin without another word.

Making a mental note not to say the name "Severus" in front of Sirius she went to brush her teeth using the kitchen sink, while drinking a cup of water he looked straight ahead the kitchen window and saw the bathroom where Sirius was, steam coming out of the bathroom window. Once she was done with her morning hygiene routine, Jessica worked on breakfast.

Took Sirius more the one hour to finally come back from the bathroom. Breakfast was ready and the table was set when he came in.

His improvement was noticeable, his new clothes looked really good on him, he was wearing a plain black pants and shoes with a light blue shirt, he left two buttons open, revealing a bit of his chest. His hair was dry, giving him an elegant look, his teeth much whiter then before, fingernails trimmed . Jessica understood why he took so long, Sirius spend a lot of time making use of his new wand fixing himself.

"You look really good," said Jessica breaking an awkward silence. "I have breakfast ready."

"Thank you," he said, sitting down to eat.

His gratefulness came fully appreciated by Jessica, but she sat there looking at him extremely annoyed and tired of hearing thank you and nothing more. Sirius started slowing down after eating without a break for half an hour, Jessica had to keep making the food multiply every few minutes or so they would have enough. Jessica in the other hand, was only drinking a tall cup of milk, feeling sick to her stomach from all the coldness in the room.

"Well, thank you," said Sirius again, Jessica rolled her eyes. "I am feeling better, you can go now."

"WHAT?" Jessica yelled without a warning. "I am sorry, you got me by surprise. You want me to leave?"

"Since I can take care of myself there is nothing left for you here," he said coldly.

Jessica wanted to cry now, she stood up and gave her wand a wave and the dishes on the table, one by one, started floating to the sink.

"I don't want to go," she said in a firm voice, leaning against the sink facing the table where Sirius was.

"I am sure your boyfriend misses you," he said looking at her for a second and looking back to the table where he was playing with his wand, spinning it around.

"What? Boyfriend?" she said looking puzzled. "I don't have a boyfriend," she said drinking a large amount of her milk.

"So what do you call Snape this days?"

Jessica choked with shock, milk came flying out of her nose and mouth, she tried coving it with her hand, but in the movement she spilled the rest of the milk over her shirt. Feeling extremely embarrassed she turned around. washed her face and trying to dry her shirt with a kitchen towel.

Sirius stood up and she heard his footsteps walking towards her, stopping inches behind her. Jessica faced him and he held her right wrist tightly, pointing his wand at it he started moving it upwards very gently through her arm. Took her moments to understand he was drying the milk, as wand past all of the milk around it would dry out.

His wand moved from shoulder to shoulder below her neck line, and her shirt got dry. Jessica breathing became heavy, she felt her whole body react to their closeness it was so hard not to reach out and kiss him, but the feeling quickly went away when she looked him in the eye, and saw Sirius looking at her with arrogance.

When his wand touched her left wrist, Sirius got the towel Jessica was holding and threw it back on the sink. Jessica was struggling to calm down, and make her breathing softer, but failing.

"You are a witch, for heaven sake, use magic," Sirius moved away, and sat back down.

"Severus is nothing more than friend, like always," said Jessica when her breathing went back to normal.

"I don't believe you," he said coldly again. "I saw Snape go get you every night at the school gate and walking you in for more than a month."

"And you just assumed we were together?" Jessica got annoyed beyond her control. "Look how clever you are, proud now? Are you?" She said walking towards him. "And all this time it never crossed your mind the reason I went there was to try to find you before the dementors did? And all the time you saw me there never once you tried to talk with me, why?" She was trying to fight her tears down.

Sirius was silent for a moment. "I heard you tell Snape you don't love me."

Jessica froze, he was right, she did tell Severus that, she knew it was a mistake and now more than ever she wished she told Severus to truth.

"I lied," she said softy. "At the time I did not want to love you. I was hurting because you never tried to go see me. When I heard you escaped, I thought I would see you in a matter of days, but months passed and you never came."

"I don't blame you," he said, but Jessica knew it was not over. "I can't get pass the fact you told Snape that, lie or not."

"It was foolish, but there is nothing I can do now, just forgive me," she waited to see if he was going to say something, but he didn't. "Okay?"

"Not okay," he said standing up facing her by only few inches again. "I want you to go now, and I will tell you when I am over it."

"But…"

"GO," he yelled before she could speak another word. Jessica didn't dare to try to speak again, they stared at each other for a while. "Just go please," he said weakly, sitting back down.

Jessica didn't want to go, but she left to respect his will.


	9. In your Arms

Her office back in London came to view and Jessica felt relief, she apparated without thinking where she was going, breaking all the rules of apparation, the three D's came to her mind Destination, Determination and Deliberation.

Not long after she got there Fudge came in.

"I thought I heard you," he said. "I am glad you came I have a some things I need you to do…" he stopped when he took a closer look at Jessica, she was very pale, in shock. "Are you alright? You look ill. Is the Minister overworking you?"

Jessica tried to quickly snap out of her shock. "No, he is not overworking me, I am just not feeling good today," she told him.

"I think you should go home and rest all weekend. Come back Monday I will need you here," he said while leaving.

He was right the correct thing to do was to just go back home and give Sirius some time to think about things. But Jessica couldn't even gather the strength to apparate at home. She sat in her office for what it seems like a hour, staring at nothing not even knowing how to feel. _Should I feel angry, sad, depressed?_ she asked herself._ Should I just accept it and move on?_ she asked again. _Is there something I can do that will make Sirius get over his anger?_

Then it came to her. She opened her drawer and got the ring he gave her years ago, the ring that she wore every day reminding her of their love. She grasped it tightly on her hand looking at her desk she saw the newspaper with Rita Skeeter article on it. Without thinking twice she got hold of the newspaper and in a blink of an eye she was back at the cabin facing Sirius.

He was still sitting on the same chair he was before she left. He looked at her, half in amazement half in shock. She went towards the table and suddenly smashed her hands on the table making Sirius jump a little bit, she threw the newspaper near him and took her hands out of the table revealing the ring underneath it.

Sirius got the ring and started reading the article. Jessica sat across from him watching as he read, he put his leg on top of the table and was tilting his chair on two legs, holding the newspaper with one hand and playing with the ring with the other.

When he was done he stared at her till she broke the silence.

"Sirius for years I waited to have you again. My heart longs for you, and only you, to feel your warmth when you hold me close. I waited to be filled with the joy of your smile. I miss looking deep into your beautiful grey eyes. I miss snuggling with you in front of the fire. I miss holding you in my arms, my ears misses the sound of your laughter, I miss the smell of your hair and the taste of your lips. Sirius, I need you to listen and understand this, last lips mine lips touched was yours."

Sirius chair was back in all four legs. Deep inside Jessica he hoped this was enough to make him forgive her, hoping he would understand she still loved him very much. Sirius pocketed the ring and jumped across the table sitting on its edge. He held her hand pulling Jessica to her feet and he did the same.

Jessica started panting with excitement, Sirius ran his hands up and down her face a few times before grabbing her neck tightly and pulling into a kiss. Jessica throw her arms around him and held him as close as she possibly could.

"Jessica, my heart is overflowing with love for you," he said in a soft tone that sent shivers tumbling through her entire body. "I am amazed at what you do to my heart."

They were still close together. Jessica smiled as Sirius whispered _I love you_ to her ears, kissing it gently.

"Let me show you something," she got her wand out using one hand, and the other holding Sirius tightly around his waist. "Expecto Patronum", a large dog came out of her wand and ran once around them before it disappeared.

"How long you have my patronus?" he asked her kissing her again.

"Since I signed the papers giving dementors permission to kiss you," she said in between kisses.

Sirius stopped kissing her and got his wand out, just like she did. "Expecto Patronum," he said and a small dragon, no bigger then a phoenix came out of his wand.

Jessica started laughing hard as Sirius held her tightly again.

"This is so mess up, since when you have my patronus?" She asked.

"Every since I overheard you telling Snape you don't love me," he said rolling his eye.

"I am so sorry," she said kissing his lips gently.

"I know," he whispered against her parted lips. "I think is time we put our patronus right."

Jessica nodded and Sirius lifted her out the floor several inches while he kissed her passionately.

Next morning Jessica was the first to wake up cuddled around Sirius. She smiled as she felt his arm around her waist. If Jessica could make that moment last forever she would. She kissed his neck gently, he opened his eye, and gave her a squeeze.

"Thank goodness it was not a dream," he said giving her a kiss on top of her head.

"I know, I was thinking the same thing," Jessica was resting her head on top of Sirius chest listening to his heart beat.

"It sure feels like a dream," he said softly.

"It does, I agree," she said quietly, lifting her head up to meet his gaze and laid back down on his chest.

"I was never able to dream about you," he said. "I hoped every night you would come to visit me while I was asleep, but it never happened."

"Same thing with me. Although, one time Dumbledore gave me something to drink and I dreamt with you, Lily and James." She went on telling him all about her dream.

Sirius hand moved in circles on her back as they laid in bed like that for a while talking and laughing. Both of them full of love to give, love that was bottled up inside them for a very long time.

It was without a doubt a magical weekend. Sirius and Jessica were glued together, even when Jessica tried to cook them dinner Saturday night Sirius tagged along not letting her get much done.

Sunday afternoon they finally decided to go out of the cabin, Jessica was excited to show Sirius around the place she once lived. It was mid winter and the chilly breeze gave them excuse to walk with their arm around each other the whole time.

It wasn't hard to fall in love with the little village, Jessica loved that place so much and Sirius did too. They sat on a bench in the middle of a little square, filled with families with little children running around. Little stores surrounded the square, the only place in miles to get your supplies was there, in stores run by locals.

"This is amazing, just beautiful," said Sirius looking around smiling at everything and everyone.

"This is probably the most peaceful place on earth," she said. Sirius gave a small nod. "Just what both of us needed."

"Definitely," he said as she leaned her head on his shoulder, Sirius was stroking her hair and Jessica holding his free hand with both of her hands.

The same feeling of freezing the time came to her again, if she could she would. Everything about that moment was extremely surreal, it was hard to believe she was being held by Sirius, the man she loved with every fiber of her being.

They walked back to their cabin and Jessica finally told him she would have to leave soon.

"Fudge wants me back tomorrow. I will have to go," she explained. "But I will work it out with Pacon, make sure he keeps up the necessity of me coming down, I can probably spend half of the weekdays here."

Sirius sighed. "I don't want you to go," he told her with a silly fake face of sadness.

"I don't want to go," she said. They just got back to the cabin, taking their cloaks off. "But I have no choice." Jessica gave him a small kiss on his nose.

Sirius pulled her in closer as he gave her a real kiss. Jessica knees felt weak as they kissed, her arm wrapped around his neck, her other hand rested on his lower back. Sirius tangled his fingers in her hair.

"We really need to eat a decent meal," she said breaking up the kiss long enough to say that and going right back.

"I will help, that way we will be done with it sooner," he said and let go of the embrace and going over to the small kitchen area.

After they were done eating, Sirius helped her with the dishes, in two and using magic it went really fast. Jessica gave Sirius a warm hug after she put the last plate away, they broke apart to gaze at each other, Jessica gently massing his scalp with the tips of her fingers.

She got lost looking inside his eyes, she went deep inside him, feeling like she was looking into his soul, his emotions pouring back at her, like they shared the same body, mind and soul. At that time Jessica felt the two of them were becoming one, their love was uniting their life, Sirius feeling the same way.

"Do you remember when James and Lily did this in front of us?" Sirius asked without breaking eye contact.

"Did what?" she asked, like Sirius not breaking the connection, not even blinking.

"They would stare at each other for the longest time, their silence screaming love to all of us around them," Sirius reminded her.

"Yes," she giggled a little. "I remember now, I never understood what they were doing, not until now."

"I think we just reached the point where James and Lily were," he added, leaning closer to kiss her.

"Yes, I think so too," she said right before their lips met.

Jessica went back to work the next day, every minute spend way from Sirius just made her want to go back to him. Trying to ignore her anxiety she did the best she could to do her job, none of the absurd things Fudge asked her to do bothered her, Jessica was too happy to care.

A couple of weeks passed and she kept on going to London and back to Sirius arms in the end of the day. Once or twice she stopped by her apartment to see how Willy and Remus were doing, both of them took over the whole apartment, Remus moved in completely into Jessica bedroom, and none seemed to be looking for another place to stay, which made Jessica very happy.

Willy was now happily learning the secrets of potion making. He was overjoyed when he found out no magic is necessary to make a good potion, just mixing ingredients. Since a little kid Potion was Willy favorite thing to hear about, he loved Jessica potion ingredients lists, and couldn't wait to find out how she used them. Jessica knew Willy was inside of the apartment for a long time, his black hair was growing longer, facial hair was now visible and messy, she was sure he stopped looking for a job and was now giving his all to the potion making art.

"Give him another month and he will be the one making my Wolfbane," said Remus, while Willy mixed his cauldron carefully. "Looks like you will be able to retire soon Jessica."

Remus kept on asking when he could go see Sirius, and Jessica kept on giving excuses. Sirius and Jessica were going through a pretty selfish period, Sirius did not want any visitors when Jessica finally got home, and Jessica did not want to share Sirius either.

One night after they had dinner Sirius insisted on taking Jessica for a walk showing her some places Sirius found exploring while Jessica was away working.

He showed her to a place that took Jessica's breath away, it was such a magical place. A tall waterfall was before them, a wide creek with large boulders in the middle and on its edge, tall trees all around, with wild flowers in various colors growing everywhere.

Sirius sat down in one of the boulders on the edge of the creek and Jessica did the same. She admired the marvelous natures work, knowing no human ever put a hand to make the place look like that, it was a wonder how perfect everything was, even the rock they were sitting on looked like it was carefully put there so people could sit comfortably while enjoying the view.

"I come here all the time," said Sirius, gently caressing her leg.

"It's a wonder how you can walk away from a place like this," she said still amazed at her surroundings.

"It's easy when I know you are coming home, no view bits that," he pulled her into a kiss.

"I love you." she muttered against his lips.

It was getting dark now and the stars were coming out, the noises of the jungle ringing through their ears as the nocturnal animals became active.

"You know, I love the stars," said Jessica . "I spend a lot of time looking up the past years, imagining if you were looking at them also, at the same time I was."

"No way, I did the same, almost every night," said Sirius drawing her closer to himself. "Remember when we used to lay on the grass near the lake at Hogwarts? Looking at the stars, it was so much fun."

"Yeah, I thought a lot about it over the years," she blushed slightly. "Do you remember what else we used at the same time."

Sirius laughed. "We kissed," he said pausing for a moment. "A whole lot," he whispered into her ear before starting to kiss her.

"Uh, I think it's time we checked something," Sirius said letting go of the embrace. "Expecto Patronum." A large dog came out of his wand and jumped from boulder to boulder. Sirius gave his bark like laugh. "Welcome back buddy, I missed you."

"Expecto Patronum," Jessica tried, both expecting to see her beautiful dragon, but a dog, inches smaller then Sirius dog came out of her wand. Her dog did the same Sirius Patronus did, jumping from boulder to boulder, until it met Sirius dog, they collided and a light came out of them, so bright that it blinded Jessica and Sirius for a second.

Jessica was laughing pretty hard. Sirius just looked puzzled.

"What that…," he paused. "How come yours is a dog?"

"It's normal, it happens when you are truly in love," said Jessica trying to stop laughing. "Lily patronus changed too, into a doe, remember? It used to be a swan."

"You are right," Sirius said in amazement. "Wow, we have the same patronus," he said dreamily.

"I need to bring Remus here," said Jessica, changing subject. "He is asking everyday now."

"I know, I think this weekend will be alright," said Sirius standing up. "Shall we get back?" He asked helping her to her feet.

"Lumos," both said. They walked back to the cabin illuminating the way with the tip of their wand as they went.


	10. Strange Connection

Next morning Sirius mood changed a little bit, the bird he used to send a letter to Harry came back with his answer, Harry asked Sirius to send him some food, because the Dursleys were on a diet and making him follow it too.

"Those muggles are not worthy of having Harry in the same room," said Sirius before slamming the door behind him, going to the village to buy his godson some decent food.

A couple of days went by and it was now Saturday morning. Remus was going to come for dinner, arriving with Pacon later in the afternoon. The cabin was definitely not built for entertainment, the only furniture in the place was the bed and the kitchen table, but they figured it would be fine.

"I will go to the village, buy some things for the dinner," said Jessica. "Want to come?"

"No, I think I will wait here, in case he comes early." Sirius was more anxious than Jessica thought he would be. Pacing the cabin.

It was very cute to see Sirius like that, Jessica pondered how she would act if she knew Lily was about to walk in that cabin door any minute and was able to feel sympathetic, she then realized what Sirius was feeling.

When she arrived at the cabin she was taken aback, Sirius was outside door in loud conversation with a woman. Jessica approached them and she felt sick to her stomach, she seen that woman before, she worked for the Ministry. Still walking towards them, Jessica kept on trying to remember which department she worked.

The woman was very young, the way she was dressed made her look like a muggle, if it wasn't for her pink bubble hair, Jessica would not even recognize her. Sirius was laughing pretty hard. Jessica stood by Sirius and finally remembered who the woman was.

"Sirius, stop laughing, you should get inside," said Jessica with caution, carefully putting an arm full of groceries on the floor. "She is an Auror."

"I know," said Sirius with teary eyes from laughter. "This is Tonks, my cousins daughter, you met her, remember?"

"Yes," Jessica remembered the little girl she met on her graduation day. "Sirius I really think you should be careful," she whispered to him.

"Is okay," she said brightly. "I am happy I found you, mother will be so pleased, she was worried sick about Sirius."

Sirius was still trying to stop laughing. "Jessica, Scrimgeour send her to investigate what you are really up to, what an idiot."

"What?" said Jessica in shock. "He suspects I am up to something?"

"If you ask me, I think it is pretty obvious. But he only got suspicious because he overheard a conversation between Brisson and Fudge, they were saying how much you changed in the past month, you are always smiling, happy to do whatever you are asked. Brisson made the comparison that you were acting a lot like when he first met you, back when you two were happily living together," she said with a smile.

Jessica and Sirius giggled like two teenagers.

"Anyway," Tonks went on. "When Scrimgeour mentioned someone should investigate, I volunteered right away. And I think is great I found you, now I can make up a story, and I think I might go confuse someone in Asia, so they say Sirius was spotted there," she said laughing, joined by Sirius who was once again laughing pretty hard.

"Idiot," said Sirius again, taking a big breath. "Stay for dinner," he offered. "Remus is joining us soon."

"Remus really?" asked Tonks, and Jessica swore she saw a twinkle in her eyes. "I haven't seen him in ages."

Sirius gave her an evil grim following by a smile. "You shall see him again."

"I need to go inside and finish dinner," said Jessica. "Pacon will be her soon, he is our secret keeper. Sorry you can't go in now."

"It's alright. Sirius and I can catch up while we wait,"

Once Jessica opened the door to go inside the cabin Sirius summoned two chair, they came flying out the door, Jessica had to duck few inches, and one of the chairs missed her head.

It was surprising that Jessica was not uneasy with the new comer, she actually felt the opposite. Tonks energy was good, Jessica knew she could trust her, once or twice she even thought how nice it would be to have a girlfriend again. Every so often she heard Sirius and Tonks laugh hysterically.

Jessica finished dinner as soon as she heard new voices out the door. She quickly set the table and went to join them.

Remus and Pacon were now laughing with Sirius and Tonks, soon after Sirius told them Tonks was the Auror in charge. Pacon whispered the address and they started going in, Tonks tripped on a chair and avoided falling face down when Jessica held her.

Words could not describe what Jessica was feeling, having Remus and Sirius reunited was overwhelmingly emotional, adding Tonks and Pacon to the scene was a bonus beyond imagination. The five of them looked like teenagers, none could stop laughing and all were talking nonsense. If another person came into the room he would think they were all drunk, the catch was, they didn't even drink a single drop of alcohol.

Sirius started on his stories about his time at Hogwarts, the stories quickly turned into a Severus joke telling time, at this point Jessica was so out of it, that she couldn't help but to laugh with them. Even Tonks had some funny stories to tell, of her mischievous moments at Hogwarts.

"Last year I was teaching the third years to get hid off a boggart," Remus said, wiping some cheerful tears out of his eyes. "Any poor Neville Longbottom is terrified of Snape, of course the boggart turned into him, moments later, Neville succeeded in his spell and Snape was in front of a class full of student wearing a long lace-trimmed dress and a towering hat topped with a moth-eaten vulture, swinging a huge crimson handbag."

The room blasted with laughter, Tonks knocked her cup off the table and it smashed in million pieces.

"Oh dear, sorry," she said. " I better call it a night. I still need to make up a story, what is going on with Jessica Thompson."

"I should get going also, it's really late," said Remus looking at a pocket watch.

"Thank you for having me," Pacon added. "I am on my way."

They disapparated leaving Jessica and Sirius alone again.

Sirius sat on the bed, gleaming with happiness. "Great night, don't you think?" Sirius pulled Jessica into his arms.

"Just wonderful," Jessica stroked his chest. "Are you glad they are gone?"

"Yes," giving her a kiss. Jessica smiled against his lips.

Next Tuesday morning Jessica went to take a shower before going to work and when she got back to the cabin, she found Sirius sitting on the table pale reading the Daily Prophet.

"She is mad," he muttered.

"Who is mad?" Jessica asked walking behind him to look at the newspaper, she recognized Rita Skeeter column at once.

"Tonks," Sirius answered. "Listen to this," he read it aloud.

The Auror office still doing

all in their power to capture Sirius

Black. Wisely enough they did

not ignore my last article in the

matter, my concerns regarding

Jessica Thompson involvement

with Sirius Black were not lightly taken.

Scrimgeour send one of the most

prestigious Auror to investigate

Jessica's mysterious disappearance.

Where does she goes when she

doesn't show up at the Ministry?

Oh yes, I have the answers.

Upon investigation the Auror

office discovered Jessica has a

hidden romance. Word is Brazilian

Minister of Magic requested

Jessica's services, and till recently

we all believed it was all work related.

But is it really? The answer is no,

the Auror reported Jessica Thompson

and Pacon Iawi are happily

dating, they are madly in love.

Lets hope a wedding is in their

near future, after all those years

of heartache Jessica deserves to be

happy. Sources confirms that

she no longer wears the engagement

ring Sirius Black gave her,

I mentioned it on an earlier article…

"And she goes one telling a bit about Pacon's history, how you guys met and all," he said in shock.

Jessica was laughing.

"Aren't you mad?" Sirius asked.

"No way, I think it very clever," said Jessica. "Tonks is brilliant."

There was a knock on the door. Jessica went to get it and it was Tonks.

"I am so sorry," she said looking miserable. "I thought it would be the perfect cover up, I only told Rufus, I have not idea how Rita found out."

"It's alright," said Sirius feeling sorry for Tonks. "Jessica you will need to go see Pacon, make sure he is okay with it."

"Yeah I will," she said giving Sirius a sweet kiss. "I need to go to work. Don't forget to send Harry the birthday cake I baked."

"I need to get back too," Tonks waived. "See you later."

Jessica made sure to go talk with Pacon before going to London, he was very assumed and did not mind it at all.

It was mid August now, things were going pretty well. Sirius and Jessica love was growing each day, and then when they thought it was impossible to feel more love than that, it would grow a little bit more.

Winter was dying out and Spring was approaching, making everything around them even more beautiful. Remus spend most of the days there with Sirius, while Jessica went to work, and he would leave soon after Jessica got back, letting his friends enjoy the rest of the day by themselves. Tonks often stopped by, and Jessica started to think she was going there to see Remus and not Sirius.

The night was warm and comfortable. Jessica went to sleep on Sirius arms, like every night. Jessica opened her eye and the night was unusually dark, it was pouring rain outside, the wind was as strong as a hurricane, she looked at Sirius who was asleep like nothing was happing. Jessica was scared, which was surprising, normally she enjoyed stormy nights, she thought lighting was beautiful, she loved watching natures force, but this time she was afraid and she didn't know why.

She slowly got out of bed, being careful not to wake Sirius up. Jessica went to the window to watch the storm more closely, the fear inside her growing at each second. After a few minutes, she decided it was best to climb back to bed, surround herself with Sirius arms and try to go back to sleep.

Before she turned around she looked one more time out the window and froze. Someone was walking in between trees. Jessica focused harder to see if it was someone she knew. She tried to call Sirius out of shock, once she recognize who it was, but no sound came out of her mouth. Peter Pettigrew was walking a few feet way from the cabin, although it was years ago since last time she seen him, his rat like face and pointed nose was still the same.

He saw Jessica staring and gave her a evil grim. He turned to face her and she saw he was holding something, but it was too dark to figure out what it was. Suddenly, a lighting stroke near the cabin and she saw it, the thing that Peter was holding, she screamed in horror, another lighting hit and it blinded her. Everything went dark.

A new feeling came over her, but it was different, the pain she was feeling was not hers. Harry was in pain, and she was feeling it with him.

"Jessica," she heard Sirius call, "Wake up," he said again, shaking her gently.

She opened her eye and Sirius was on top of her. She was sweating cold, panting like she run miles.

"Sirius, Harry is in pain," Jessica suddenly said, pushing Sirius off her and sitting down.

"What?" he asked puzzled.

"I felt it, it was weird, is his scar is hurting him," she said knowing she sounded stupid. "What happened to the rain?" she realized the night peaceful.

"It didn't rain. Jessica, it was only a nightmare," he said softy. "You screamed and woke me up."

She started crying.

"It was not a dream, the pain was real, I felt it," she was shaking. "Peter has Voldemort, I saw him, Peter was holding him like infant, it was horrible," she sobbed harder. "Voldemort is going to come back, Peter is helping him now, he is going after Harry again," she sobbed on Sirius shoulders.

"Harry is alright, he can't be touched where he is," he kissed her cheek, tasting her salty tears. "He will be okay."

Sirius helped Jessica back into her pillow, he held her close.

"Try to go back to sleep," he said. Jessica sobs died down as he stroked her back, till she finally dosed off.


	11. Going Back Home

Next morning neither Jessica or Sirius wanted to talk about last night. Jessica was now trying to convince herself it was just a nightmare but she was having a hard time, because what she felt was too real to ignore. Jessica wasn't going to go to work today so wanted to have a good day.

Sirius was standing at the door way admiring the bright sky. Jessica wrapped her arms around him from behind.

"What are the plans for today?" Jessica asked.

"Don't know, I don't have any," he said caressing her hands.

"We should go for a walk, it's beautiful outside," she added. Sirius turned around to face her.

"I think you should go tell Dumbledore about your dream," he said showing a great amount of concern.

"What for?" she said walking away from him. "You said it was just a dream, so why would I want to bug Dumbledore about it?"

"You were sure it was not only a dream, I mean, you felt pain, I heard you scream," he said walking towards her.

"I didn't scream because of the pain, it was because of what Voldemort looks like," her voice breaking up as she spoke.

"And what does he look like?" Sirius asked in surprise.

"I don't want to talk about it, I just want to forget what I saw," said Jessica trying to repress his image out of her head.

"I still think you should tell, to Dumbledore it might be useful information," he said calmly, giving her a hug.

"But I am not a seer, so is not a great source of information," she said meeting his gaze. "Tell you what, if Harry indeed felt pain at the same time I did, he will most likely tell you about it, and if it happens to be true I will go tell Dumbledore," she said giving kisses on his shoulder and neck.

Later in the afternoon Tonks and Remus stopped by once again. Sirius made Jessica tell them about the dream she had, it was quite embarrassing telling it aloud.

"You know, my mom was talking about this the other night," said Tonks when Jessica finished her dream. "She said things are starting to feel weird again, just like before."

Remus sighed. "This is not good," looking at Sirius. "Do you realize if Voldemort starts moving again the Ministry will blame it all on you."

Jessica felt chills on her bones, her body agreeing with his words.

"Did Bertha come back yet?" Sirius asked. Bertha Jorkins worked for the Ministry and left on vacation to Albania, where a few people believed Voldemort was hiding, and she never came back. Since she was known to be forgetful, people were just saying she lost track of place and time.

"No", said Tonks almost in a whisper. "Do you think he got her?"

"Don't know," three voices said at once.

"At least we are not the only ones who think things are changing," said Remus thoughtfully. "Dumbledore is getting Mad-Eye out of retirement, we will teach at Hogwarts next term."

The air of their visit that night was as heavy as in a funeral. By the time they said bye and left, Jessica felt exhausted, her back muscles hard because she was so tense.

It was impossible to go to sleep that night, every time her mind relaxed a little bit Voldemort image came to her head. A crouched infant, his face flat and snakelike, is body ugly, slimy, hairless and scaly-looking, his gleaming red eye staring back at her.

Jessica took a few days off work. Fudge was going to attend the Quidditch World Cup final, Jessica had tickets for the match but she did not want to go, she rather be with Sirius instead. She knew Harry was going and she had a very uneasy feeling about it. She shared it with Sirius a couple of times and he tried to make her go and keep an eye on him.

"He is with Arthur, he will be safe," she told Sirius, trying to convince herself at the same time. "I trust the Weasleys completely."

It was a long hard day for Jessica, her stomach hurting like never before, she felt nervous like something was wrong. Once or twice she thought of going to the game just to be sure, but at the same time she felt foolish, thinking she was paranoid.

Sirius noticed Jessica wasn't feeling right, and went a extra mile to keep her busy, and it worked pretty well, most of the time. She was so grateful for all he was doing, mostly because he didn't tried to question her in what was wrong, not even once he asked her.

Jessica was not surprised to see the Daily Prophets next morning, after the Quidditch match was over a group of Death Eater terrorized the camp, attacked muggles and the dark mark shined like emerald stars on the sky. A colossal skull with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue, the dark mark. It was used by Voldemort and Death Eaters when they killed someone.

The Ministry did not find any bodies at the scene, even after fully searching the whole camp area. But it did not matter to Jessica, this was only one more prove that the Dark Forces were reuniting, something was going on, and those who were alert enough started to catch on and realize it.

Sirius and Jessica were sitting on the table, he had his arm around her, both sharing the newspaper reading silently. Jessica finished reading it first and waited quietly until Sirius was done. He put the newspaper down and sighed heavily.

"You felt it didn't you?" he said. "That is why you were not well yesterday, you knew something was wrong."

Jessica resisted and gave him a small nod.

"You got to tell," said Sirius firmly.

She knew Sirius was right, she needed to tell the only person who would believe her, Dumbledore. And he would be the one person that would know why this connection existed.

But even if she wanted to go talk with Dumbledore she couldn't at the moment , because since the event at the World Cup she got crazy busy with work. Several times a day she had heated discussions with Fudge, who refused to believe that all the signs pointed to Voldemort.

A couple of days went by and Jessica did not even had time to stay with Sirius that much, leaving early in the morning and coming back late at night. Friday night she was very excited to come home and have her weekend break.

Sirius attempted to cook, he thought he failed miserably and Jessica actually enjoyed, mostly because of the effort he put into it. They planed the whole day ahead of them before going to sleep.

Jessica slept well that night, she was having a hard time the past week, because she felt overwhelmingly worried with Harry and his safety, since she was working hard the exhaustion took over and helped her rest properly.

Next morning Jessica was the first up, rubbing her eyes so that she would wake up a bit more, she looked around the room and saw Hedwig, Harry's owl, patiently waiting sitting on the window seal.

"Sirius," she gently called. "It's Hedwig. Go get her."

Sirius jumped out of bed walking as fast as he could, losing balance as he went. Jessica knew he was feeling light headed because of the speed he was going. He got the letter and came back to the bed and sat by Jessica. He read it quickly.

"I knew it," he said looking at Jessica. "His scar is hurting, he wrote me to tell that." Sirius got of bed getting dressed fast. "I need you to go get Buckbeak for me."

"What for?" Jessica cried out in alarm.

"I am flying North," he simply said.

How could Jessica argue with that? Inside her, she always knew she couldn't keep Sirius hidden in the jungles of Brazil for a long time. He was still the same person she fell in love with, taking risks even the most reckless ones for the ones he cared about.

"Where are you going to hide?" Jessica asked as Sirius sat on Buckbeaks back.

"Don't know," he thoughtfully said. "Can you go ahead me and find a good place? Near Hogwarts, I want to be as close as can to Harry."

"Sure, I need to go see Dumbledore, I can send you an owl telling you where to meet me," she said. Sirius held her hand and kissed it. "How long will it take you to get there?"

"Couple of days," he said. "See you then?"

"Yes," she said her heart half breaking. "I love you, take care."

"I love you too," seconds later Buckbeak and Sirius were out of her sight.

After Jessica was done packing she send her luggage home and thought of going to talk with Pacon, tell him they were going back to London, but she realized she had no idea where he went on Saturdays, she went to go see Dumbledore instead.

She apparated at Hogsmeade station and send a patronus to Dumbledore so he knew she was coming. Sure enough Dumbledore was almost at the gate when she got to Hogwarts.

"What an honor to see you here again Jessica," Dumbledore said greeting her friendly. "Can I assume this visit has something to do with the Quidditch finals?"

"Yes, But there is more," she said walking to the castle. "Your office please."

They walked to Dumbledore office, randomly talking about different things. Dumbledore asked how were things in Brazil, discreetly asked if Sirius was there with her and she confirmed.

"Sirius is flying here," Jessica started as Dumbledore's office door closed behind her. "Harry complained his scar is hurting again."

"Well I am not surprised," Dumbledore said calmly. "With everything that it's happening I did not expect Sirius to stay away for long. Do you know what day Harry's scar hurt?"

"Yes," she paused trying to figure out the right thing to say. "I know exactly when he felt pain because I felt it at the same time. I didn't feel pain, I felt Harry in pain."

Jessica waited to see if Dumbledore was going to say something, but he just stared at her blankly.

"Albus, I was not going to bother you with this, but the day the Death Eaters set the dark mark I felt sick to my stomach all day. I was so worried about Harry, I felt something was wrong."

"Remarkable," said Dumbledore slowly getting up. "I haven't heard anything like this, in decades." He muttered to himself, he got a book and returned to the table. "And between friends, I think this is very unique."

"Sorry, but what is unique?" Jessica asked and Dumbledore handed her a book.

Jessica body froze when she read the title. A very small book with dark purple cover, the title in silver, shinning at her more then normal. _The Power of Motherhood instincts. _

"You can't be serious," said Jessica in shock.

"Motherhood is a very special thing. There is a powerful magic connecting a child to its mother." Dumbledore had a smile on his face. "Don't you find your mother always knows something is wrong with you before you tell her?"

"Yes, but she is my mother. I am not Harry's mother, what I am feeling can't have anything to do with motherhood instincts," she said firmly.

"This is very rare indeed. I agree with you, it is quite unbelievable," he said with sympathy. "There are a few cases where this happened before, but only between sisters, most cases twins. A mother dies and her instincts transfers to someone very to close her, someone that is connected with her in a special way. This proves that the friendship between you and Lily was true and your bonds are really strong, stronger than sisterhood."

Jessica pondered on those words for a second. "But Albus, Harry was in mortal danger a few times before, how come I never felt it before?"

"I believe this book will explain it well," he said pointing at the book. "But I think the reason you can only feel it now after all these year, is that for the first time you are complete. Half of yourself was imprisoned with Sirius, and now that you reunited feels like you have more life," Jessica quickly nodded in agreement. "You were too sad to be in tune with Harry Potter emotions."

"In other words, I was too depressed," said Jessica quietly.

"I believe so," he said. "Anything else I can do for you?"

"Yes, Sirius needs a good place to hide, he wants to be close by."

"I do have a perfect spot. When will he be here?" Dumbledore asked.

"He said a couple of days," she said realizing how vague she sounded. "I will send him an owl asking for a better time, and telling where to meet you."

"Add in your letter that will be better if he came after dark," Dumbledore wisely said. "Tell him to meet at the foot of the mountain south of Hogsmeade."

"Okay, I will do that," she said standing up. "Is it okay to use Hogwarts owl?"

"Yes, feel free," said Dumbledore politely. "Keep in mind that I would like to know when your mothers intuition kicks in."

"I will let you know," she was about to leave when she remembered about her dream. "I forgot about something," she said looking at him again. "Before I felt Harry in pain, I saw Peter Pettigrew in a dream, he had Voldemort with him, I think it was Voldemort anyway. It looked like a crouched slimy baby, and bright red eye," she felt silly. "Stupid, I know."

"No, not at all," he said getting a small empty bottle out of his desk drawer. "Is very useful information, for me anyway. Do you mind giving the image to me?" he handed her the empty bottle

Jessica placed her wand above her ear and silvery blue substance came out of it, she stored it inside the bottle and gave it to Dumbledore.

That night Jessica was back on her bed, without Sirius, but she was not sad, because she knew they would see each other in couple of days and everything would go back to normal. Remus was back sharing the guestroom with Willy, none seemed to mind, to the contrary, both looked very happy to see Jessica back.

It was hard falling asleep, mainly because she kept wondering why was Voldemort image useful information to Dumbledore.


	12. Uprising Danger

Remus, Jessica and Tonks were all sitting on a large rock patiently waiting for Sirius and Dumbledore. The night was quiet and warm, all three friends couldn't take their eyes out of the sky looking in all directions.

"I wonder how much longer," said Tonks looking at Jessica.

Jessica and Tonks were getting closer, they were becoming good friends, for the past week they made the deal of having lunch together everyday at work, and this was really good for Jessica, last girl she hanged out with was Lily. Tonks kept Jessica spirit fresh and young.

"I hope not much," said Jessica, her eyes still looking up. "I miss him so much."

"Well, I think that is about to change," said Remus. "I think I see him."

Remus was looking where Jessica had her back to, she turned around and she spotted in the distance a hippogriff gracefully flying through the moonlit sky. Jessica jumped with excitement, and send red sparks to the sky.

Sirius seemed to get the signal, since he started flying right at them. Buckbeak was still few inches off the ground when Sirius jumped off. Jessica ran to him and they hugged. Sirius lifted her off the floor, she wrapped her legs around his waist, she kissed him on the forehead and both cheeks before meeting his mouth.

"That was the longest two days of my life," said Sirius still holding her tightly.

"I know," said Jessica against his lips. "I missed you so much."

Time seem to stand still, for a few moments Jessica totally forgot Remus and Tonks were there. Only after they heard a small cough, Sirius and Jessica broke off their kiss and noticed Dumbledore joined them.

"Glad you see you made it alright," Dumbledore simply said.

"I was really enjoyable actually," said Sirius patting Buckbeak.

"Good," Dumbledore added. "Just follow me, we will need to climb up the mountain a little bit."

Dumbledore led the way and Sirius followed right behind him, always holding Jessica's hand, who was right behind him. Once and a while Jessica looked behind her and saw Remus helping Tonks step to the bigger rocks, which she thought was pathetic since it wasn't that hard, and looked like Tonks came up with a pretty lame excuse to have Remus touch her hands.

They climbed for at least half a hour until they got to a fissure in the rock, they all had to squeeze into it to total darkness, just until Dumbledore conjured a ball of fire to light up a cave.

"Well, this is it," said Dumbledore looking around.

"This will do fine," said Sirius doing the same as Dumbledore, looking around.

None Remus and Tonks seemed to know what to say.

"Absolutely not," Jessica finally said, after recovering from the shock of the poor conditions Dumbledore wanted Sirius to stay in. "No," she said firmly when Sirius eyed her strangely.

"This is perfect, is well hidden, close to Hogwarts," said Sirius calmly. "I can probably hunt my own food."

"You can't expect me to let you live like this," Jessica felt a slow burn of anger. "There are other ways to hide you, that is what the Fidelius Charm is for."

"And where to you think I should hide?" asked Sirius equally mad. "Look at the size of this village, don't you think someone would notice it?"

"Look at this place, is not inhabitable," said Jessica taking a second look, making the place look worse than her first look.

"I don't have a choice. I am well used to condition like this," Sirius barked at her. "This is none of your business."

"Don't talk to me like that," she said firmly.

"Stay out of it and I won't have to," said Sirius making his voice echo a little bit.

Jessica was not used to be talked to with that tone of voice, was taken aback half shocked half hurt. She looked at Dumbledore, Tonks and Remus and all of them were staring at her waiting for her come back, but she couldn't do it, she didn't want to fight.

"Are you sure you guys didn't get married?" Remus finally broke the awkward silence. "Heavens, you sound like an old married couple." Tonks let out a loud laugh and Jessica couldn't help but to smile too.

"I am sorry," said Sirius putting his arms around her. "I am tired, and grumpy," he caressed her back gently. "I don't look forward to living here, but is necessary. Right now what I need is support, I don't need to be told this place isn't good enough."

"What are you talking about?" said Jessica with loads of sarcasms in her voice. "This place it charming, as comfortable as it can't be. Just lovely."

They all laughed.

Dumbledore was wise enough not to say a word until Jessica and Sirius resolved their argument.

"If all it is well, I think I will go," said Dumbledore brightly. "I fancy a drink right about now."

"I will join you," said Remus following Dumbledore out of the cave.

Took Tonks a little longer to realize they were trying to leave Jessica and Sirius alone.

"Oh, yeah," she turned bright red. "A drink sounds really good." Tonks quickly left.

Sirius was gently running his nose on her cheek. "I don't want you to spend the night here," he finally said.

"I wouldn't mind staying here," she said gently squeezing his neck.

"I know you wouldn't might," he said giving her a small kiss. "But I would. I don't want to see you sleeping here."

Jessica understood him, and appreciated it at the same time. She stayed there for a couple of hours letting Sirius hold her the entire time.

Having Sirius close and not being able to be with him every night made Jessica really frustrated, she wanted to go see Sirius everyday but she couldn't. Her dad fell ill, and with her mom being elderly Jessica took over the job of looking after her parents.

As in for Harry, he was back at school and Jessica constantly worried about him, the feeling he was in danger never left her, day and night. Dumbledore guaranteed Harry was given the best protection he could provide, Jessica knew he meant Mad-Eye, who was a retired well known Auror, he was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. Jessica felt foolish most of the time for worrying too much, and she wanted to trust Dumbledore and Mad-Eye but every time she gave the matter some thought, she would feel even sicker to her stomach.

Hogwarts was doing something different this year the Triwizard Tournament was being held at the castle, three schools, Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, three champions would be competing. Jessica knew the difficult tasks that lay before them and she actually felt really sorry for the students competing, they would have to do pretty hard things.

Mid October Jessica's dad past away, they had a quiet funeral with family and friends. Tonks and Remus attended, it was hard to keep Sirius away, he kept saying he could go disguise himself and no one would never recognize him, but Jessica talked him out of it. Willy was now dating a friend that Tonks introduced, she was a squib, quite charming, short blond hair, with bright green eyes, she was a head shorter then Willy.

Jessica wondered how her mom would even get along without her dad, they were together for more than fifty years, Jessica feared that her mom wouldn't last long without her soul mate beside her, not with her heath going down hill each day already.

Halloween night Jessica went to see Sirius, and took him a meal. It was so upsetting to see Sirius starting to lose all the weight he gained in the months they were together, but Jessica never said anything about it, because she was trying to support him like he asked, trying not to be negative about his living condition.

"Tonight they will choose the champions," said Jessica getting comfortable sitting between Sirius legs and resting her head on his chest. "I am so tired, Dumbledore came up with a perfect idea. Like I don't have enough to deal with, lets add a Tournament, overworking its my favorite thing to do," said Jessica knowing she sounded stressed.

"Just relax," said Sirius starting to massage her scalp with his left hand. "Relax," he whispered to her ear while running his right hand up and down her arm.

She knew he was not using magic on her, but she felt the stress going right out of her. Jessica was so tired that she closed her eyes and fell asleep on Sirius arms.

The night was cold, the wind howled through her ears, every noise around her seemed to be magnified. Jessica was near Hogwarts gate, she saw a figure standing at the entrance door but did not know who it was, with determination she walked to him trying to see who it was. Jessica realized it was a man, who was still to far to be recognizable, she walked faster and the man turned around going inside of the castle. She broke into a run and got of glimpse of the man going inside the Great Hall.

No one seemed to be around the school was totally deserted. Before Jessica entered the Great hall, the door shut itself. Jessica felt terrified, for a matter of seconds she saw who was inside, the man, Harry and the Goblet of Fire, panicking Jessica tried to open the door but it was locked, she send spell after spell at it and nothing worked.

She felt someone shake her shoulder and turned around to see who it was. Everything went black. Jessica was on the cave floor, she sat up slowly and looked around, disorientated.

Sirius looked scared. "You were having a fit, I tried waking you up, but you wouldn't."

"It was another nightmare," her voice quavered. "I think someone inside the castle is trying to hurt Harry."

"What did you see?" said Sirius wrapping his arms around her again, warming her up since she was shaking.

Jessica told him everything.

"I think I should go check on Harry," said Jessica standing up. "Just to see if he is alright, make sure nothing happened tonight. "

"No, you should wait," said Sirius. "If something happened Dumbledore will let me know."

"I can't just wait," said Jessica full of anxiety. "I need to know now."

They heard a distant cry of a phoenix. Sirius looked at the entrance of the cave with fear.

"Was that Fawkes?" Jessica asked.

"Yes, Dumbledore is coming," he said and started pacing.

Jessica anxiety grew by the second, five minutes passed and it felt like an eternity. Dumbledore came into the cave with a worried look on his face.

"Is Harry alright?" she asked as soon as he came in.

"Harry is fine, safe, and I assume trying to go to sleep now," he said calmly. "But I come with news that alarms me a great deal."

"What is it?" Sirius quickly asked.

"Harry was been chose as a fourth champion on the tournament…"

"NO," both Jessica and Sirius cried at the same time.

"This is out of my hands," said Dumbledore raising both his eyebrows. "I wish I could do something about it, but Mr. Crouch won't let me meddle with the rules.

"He is too young, he can't," said Jessica shocked.

"Harry will have to compete," Dumbledore insisted.

"We can't do anything to reverse this?" Sirius asked with a shaking voice.

"I am afraid not," said Dumbledore sadly.

"I had another nightmare," said Jessica after a few moments of silence. She told Dumbledore about her dream. "Well I guess it is obvious there is someone inside the castle trying to hurt Harry. This is a clever way to do it isn't?" said Jessica right after her dream not giving Dumbledore a chance to speak.

"Oh yes, this worries me a lot," said Dumbledore. "The tasks that awaits Harry could easily kill a wizard his age," Jessica felt chill. "But I trust Harry's powers, and there is nothing in the tournament that he can't handle. Dangerous, yes, but I believe he can do it."

Dumbledore gave Jessica some comfort, but she was still worried about Harry's safety.

The reason why Jessica was so worried all the time finally made sense. Throughout the year Jessica constantly visited the castle to watch over Harry, not only for her own peace of mind, but for Sirius too.

Once or twice Jessica wanted to tell Harry the connection they had, but she never told him, thinking the right moment was yet to come, she decided to wait till she felt comfortable. Her worries was that if she told him, he was going to start looking at her like a mother figure, just like he looked up to Sirius as a father.

Jessica thought it was amazing how Sirius stepped up to father mode, at times surprising Jessica, and in her mind, she was nothing but a mother, she didn't want Harry to look at her as a mother figure and end up breaking his heart, because she didn't know how to be a mom and if she was any good at it. However the relationship between Jessica and Harry grew considerably during his hard year.

Events around the wizardry world was getting stranger everyday, disappearances, deaths, attacks were happening all over the place. Jessica and Cornelius started having daily arguments, so heated that at times curses and hexes came out of both wands in the pick of their anger. Jessica wanted Fudge to realize all this events were linked to Voldemort, who was attempting to come back to power. Fudge however was not ready to believe such a thing, denied all Jessica accusations, and found convenient to blame it all on Sirius Black.

When the pressure was too much, Jessica did the unthinkable and resigned from her prestigious post. The same day she visited her old boss at the Department of Mysteries and Brisson took her under his wings, and she started working side by side with him. Brisson was an elderly man and Jessica came as a big relief to him.

Everyone around Jessica couldn't believe what she did, Sirius for some reason got extremely annoyed at her, they all saw her change as a huge step back, and Jessica was the only one to think her sanity was more important than her career. The only person that was able to make her feel a bit of regret was Dumbledore.

"Did you consider you could be a strong ally if Fudge keeps in denial?" He looked at her with piercing eyes. "If Voldemort comes back to power, and Fudge keeps making excuses, you being by him would be a great support to our side."

Took her friends some getting used to the idea, but they all came around once they saw that Jessica was much happier than before. Even Sirius constantly joked about Jessica huge change of mood, her work stress was totally gone making their evening together even more enjoyable. Now, she also had more free time, and her friendship with Tonks was stronger also, Tonks took Jessica to two Weird Sisters concerts, and Jessica really did have a good time.

Willy set aside his muggle career and became a full time potion maker, he was now engaged to his girlfriend Isla Flint. Sirius hadn't met her yet, but he was delighted with the news, because he suspected Isla was related to a long forgotten relative, Isla Black who married a muggle and was dishonored from his family. Willy was brewing large amounts of potions every month, and selling it to wizards by mail. Jessica found him to be quite good at it, but still not as good and Severus and her.

With everything that was going on around Jessica, she still found time to spend some time with Severus, she couldn't help herself, he was one of the few friends from her time in school that was still loyal to their friendship. They had some bumps on their journey, but in the end their friendship was always there.

"Don't be rude," Jessica told Severus one cold night of January. "My memories are private." He was very curious to find out what Jessica was not telling him, from time to time he would try to use legitimency on her.

"Always quick to block me," he said with disappointment. "What are you hiding?"

"None of your business," she said coldly, deciding it was time to leave.

"Is is Black?" he said raising an eyebrow.

She just smiled without another word left. There was no point in lying to Severus, he knew her too well, and like always his suspicious was spot on. Jessica figured if she didn't answer at least she did not lie to him.

Sirius was very disapproving of this friendship. Even more after Severus started making excuses, keeping Jessica a bit longer in the castle. Jessica thought Severus was feeling lonely and needed more time with his friend and Sirius saw it as an attempt to keep Jessica from him.

"I am telling you," said Sirius, when Jessica stopped by to say hi close to midnight. "He knows I am back in your life and its doing all that he can to keep you away."

"He is doing a very poor job then, isn't he?" She said hugging him tightly. "I am here and not there."

"Yeah, but I honestly didn't think you were coming," said Sirius.

"I love when you get jealous," she said kissing him gently.

"I am not jealous," he said, and gave his small bark laugh. "Jealous of Snape, as if."

Sirius had lost a lot of weight living in the cave. Dumbledore requested that Jessica stopped going there every night, worried someone would notice it. She send him food once in a while, but Sirius was living of small animal that wondered in to his cave, most of the time rats.

Jessica was having constant nightmares with Voldemort. And each time he appeared to be stronger. One terrifying spring night she saw him back into human form, she wanted to stop having those kind of dreams but all her attempts were vain. Harry also had a couple of frightening dreams, and they were very similar to the ones Jessica had. The only problem was, it was hard to know if they should take it seriously or not.

One thing that worried Jessica was Severus dark mark, which it was tattooed to his forearm. He showed it to her a couple of times and it was getting more visible, it used to be just a scar, and now it appeared darker, he told her it burned at times. This was only one more prove that Voldemort was slowly getting stronger.

It was the forth week of June now, and the third and last task of the tournament was going to take place on Thursday. Harry did pretty well on the last two tasks putting him in a tie for first place with Cedric Diggory.

Jessica's hope was way up, what once was a dreadful thing that happened to Harry turned into a wonderful expectative, she knew he could do it, it was a matter of waiting couple of days to see how all this would end.


	13. The Last Task

"Hello Severus," Jessica met Snape a few minutes before the third task started.

"Hi there," said Snape. "I thought you were not going to make it."

"Oh, yeah, I got caught up with something," she told Snape, sitting by him. Sirius was the one keeping her longer than she expected. "But I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"How are you feeling today?" he asked

"I am alright, I bit nervous, like always," she said feeling a chill on her stomach. "Harry can handle everything in the maze, I think he will be alright."

Ludo Bagman started speaking giving the audience the ranks, the crowd cheered and applauded loudly. Without a warning and a bit too fast to Jessica's taste Bagman blew the whistle and Harry and Cedric hurried forward into the maze.

Now it was a matter of being patient, and just wait until it was over. Jessica grew worried by the minute, feeling silly at times.

Not a long time after the task began they heard a scream come from the maze, it was a female so Jessica knew it was Fleur, there was a lot of commotion around the stands where people were waiting, every eye seemed to be searching for some kind of sign Fleur wanted to get out of the maze.

They waited ten minutes and no sign of Fleur. Jessica excitement turned into worry, but she kept saying over and over again on her head that Harry was okay. For a moment she thought she was calming down, until a cold breeze came upon her making the hot summer day turn into winter.

She felt frozen with cold for a few seconds and it was gone. She looked around and no one else felt what she felt, she looked to her arm and she had goosebumps.

"Did you feel.." Jessica started asking Snape if he felt the cold air but didn't finish when she saw he wrapping his fingers around his left arm and making a face of pain. "Is it burning again?"

"Yes," he muttered.

"Something is wrong, I need to see Dumbledore."

Jessica stood up but her knees failed her and she dropped almost missing her seat, if it wasn't for Snape's quick reflexes she would be on the floor.

"Jessica you are as pale as a ghost," said Snape with his arm around Jessica shoulders, holding her tightly. "What is wrong?"

"Help me get to Dumbledore please," she said standing up slowly with Snape's support. Jessica whole body was shaking, her heart felt tight like it never did before, her mind racing with horrible thoughts, Harry was in danger and she could feel it.

"What is wrong?" Snape asked again.

"We need to get Harry out of there, his life is at risk," Jessica told him, and he looked at her like she was going mad. "I can feel it, just believe me, alright?"

He nodded and walked along Jessica to where Dumbledore was. Before Snape and Jessica got to him they saw red sparks flying high into the sky, Jessica made a silent prayer.

"Albus, something is wrong, get Harry out of there please," Jessica implored. "I can feel it."

"Wait until Alastor comes back with the champion that send the sparks," said Dumbledore and Jessica could tell he was also extremely worried.

Mad-Eye apparated back in front of them with Krum frozen solid on the floor.

"He was hit by a stunning spell," he said.

"Stunned?" Snape asked, and for the first time Jessica felt he was as worried as Dumbledore and her.

"It had to be another champion," said Jessica in surprise. "Wait." She got her wand out and pointed at Krum's wand. "_Prior Incantato_"

A distinct shape came out of it that made Jessica gasp. The Cruciatus Curse was Krum's last spell.

"No, he wouldn't," said a shocked voice, Jessica looked to see who joined them and it was Igor Karkaroff, Krum's headmaster.

"Of course he wouldn't, he's been bewitched," said Dumbledore, looking at Karkaroff. "_Rennervate_," Krum made small movements but was still very weak. "He needs further care, someone please take him."

A small witch came and helped Krum up taking him towards the castle. More people came to join them, Jessica grew impatient.

"Albus I implore you, get Harry out," said Jessica panicking.

"Get Harry out?" Mad-eye barked. "Absolutely not, the task must go on."

The people around her started muttering, saying things along the same line Moody, _"She is mad", "Stop the task?", "No way". _

"Is only fair we call it off," said Karkaroff agreeing with Jessica. "If Krum was bewitched we need to do it over again."

Once again the people around them muttered with disagreement.

"Severus, please take Jessica to the hospital wing," said Dumbledore, Jessica started shaking her head. "You don't look too good." He came close and whispered to her ear. "I will see what I can do to get Harry out."

Severus started dragging Jessica before she could say another word.

"You have a motherhood connection with Harry, don't you?" He said when they were almost at the hospital wing.

She nodded slowly. Snape stopped walking and stared at her.

"How come you didn't tell me?"

"I don't know," she said, but couldn't say anything else because her knees failed her again, and once more Snape held her.

"What? What is it now?" Snape said urgently.

"Is too late," said Jessica, starting to cry. "Harry is gone."

"Gone?" Snape asked with panic on his voice. "He is not dead, is he?"

"No," said Jessica trying to understand what was going on inside her. "But he is not in the maze anymore, Voldemort has him. We need to get back, Dumbledore needs to know."

"I am taking you to the hospital wing," he said trying to start dragging Jessica again. "You are shaking like crazy."

"NO," she screamed, and Snape held her even tighter. "LET ME GO."

"Ouch," said Snape letting go of Jessica, who broke into a run back to the maze.

But she stopped after just a few steps, when she realized Snape was not following her. She turned to him and he looked terrified.

"What is the matter?" She asked getting back to him.

Snape quickly rolled up his robes sleeves and she saw his skull tattoo hard turned jet black.

"What does this mean?" She asked with a curious look.

"He just summoned his Death Eaters," he whispered.

"He?" she whispered back.

"The Dark Lord Jessica," he said and instantly Jessica sunk on the floor crying, resting her heard against Snape's legs.

"He is going to kill Harry," she sobbed. "Go to him Snape, go get Harry."

"I need to go get orders from Dumbledore first," he said as he forced Jessica back to her feet. "I need you to go to the hospital wing by yourself."

"I really don't need to go," she said, Snape was holding her. "I am fine." He let go of her and she lost balance feeling light headed, he held her again.

"You are weak," he added, picking her up to the floor and carrying her in a hurry.

He dropped her on a bed and left quickly to see Dumbledore.

Madam Pomfrey took one look at Jessica and told her she knew what Jessica needed. Pomfrey went to her office and came back with a small purple bottle and she gave some to Jessica.

"I understand," Madam Pomfrey told her. "I wouldn't have the nerves to watch the task either."

In innocence, not even asking what she was drinking, Jessica emptied the goblet of potion. Instantly Jessica felt drowsy, the hospital became hazy.

"No," said Jessica urgently. "I don't want to go to sleep." Before Jessica could fight it, she fell deep in sleep.

When Jessica finally woke up she noticed Harry laying on the bed right next to her, a great sense of relief came upon her once she knew he was safe, but it only lasted a little bit, since a feeling of worry quickly followed, making her wonder why was he in the hospital wing.

Although she was trying really hard to stay awake her eyes still felt really heavy. She felt whisper around her and tired to focus a little.

"Molly?" she asked quietly.

"Oh my, Jessica," the woman said in surprise and went to sit by her. "Didn't realize you were awake."

"What happened?" asked Jessica sitting up. "Is Harry alright?"

"Yes, Harry is fine, just resting," said Molly. "We don't know what happened yet. All we know is that Harry came out of maze holding the cup with one and Cedric body with the other," she said with her voice breaking.

"His body?" Jessica asked with shock. "Cedric is.." but words lost her and she couldn't finish.

"Dead," a male voice finished her sentence. Jessica recognized Bill Weasley, he was a tall slim young man, with the bright read hair the whole family shared.

Jessica waived a friendly hi with her hand, it was not very often that she go to see him. Bill worked as a curse-breaker in Egypt for Gringgotts, the wizardry bank. Hermione and Ron was also there, sitting on Harry's bed.

A huge black dog came to view, it reared onto its hind legs and rested its front paws on Jessica knees, and made her jump.

"What in the world is this dog doing in here?" Jessica asked trying to make the dog go back down.

"Not sure," said Bill, scratching the dog ears making it wag its tail frantically.

"I don't like dogs," said Jessica quickly getting her hand out of the dogs way, after it tried to leak her hand. "Shoo," she said firmly.

Hermione started giggling like mad, and stopped after Ron elbowed her in disapproval.

The dog gave and sad cry and laid down on the floor next to Jessica and kept its eye fixed on her, making her a bit nervous but it died down once she tried to listen to some kind of commotion going on outside. She was not the only one listening, everyone in the room were trying to hear what was going on. Clearly there were people arguing but it was hard to understand what they were saying.

The hospital door burst open and Fudge came striding up the ward, he was followed by McGonagall and Snape. Cornelius was the last person Jessica wanted to see at that moment, he marched to them and demanded to know where Dumbledore was, before Molly could answer Dumbledore came sweeping into the hospital wing.

Jessica watched quietly as McGonagall and Fudge argued back and forth about things that made no sense to her. McGonagall was furious because Fudge brought dementors inside the castle and they performed a kiss on the prisoner Barty Crouch, who Jessica thought was the man missing for months, it all sounded extremely strange.

Dumbledore showed great disappointed at the news, saying that now Crouch couldn't give testimony on why he killed all those people, the trouble was that Jessica had no idea who Crouch could possible have killed. Fudge sounded convince that his reason for killing was lunacy, thinking he could bring Voldemort back to power.

Jessica stomach felt sick, she finally understood what was going on, Crouch was the man behind it all, he was the person that put Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire, making him a champion, he was the man helping Pettigrew bring Voldemort to power.

Dumbledore declared that Voldemort was back to power and Jessica concentrated back in the conversation just in time to hear him saying that. Jessica looked back at Fudge and hoped he would finally believe what was going on.

Her hopes vanished as she looked into his face, which was hard.

"You-Know-Who… returned? Preposterous. Come now, Dumbledore…"

It was apparent at once that whatever Dumbledore tried to say would be vain. Jessica had the same argument with Fudge over and over again, and although she whished he would finally believe Voldemort was back, inside her she knew he was in denial and would remain that way.

Finally Jessica heard from Dumbledore what really happened. He was talking about Crouch Junior, who was in Azkaban and believed to be dead. He explained that the Triwizard Cup was a portkey that took Harry straight to Voldemort.

All Dumbledore attempts to make him believe did fail, Dumbledore put his reason to words better than anyone, and still Fudge was using words like "Mad" and "Insane".

Snape strode forward, struck out his forearm and showed Fudge his Dark Mark. But once again Fudge shook his head in denial. Snape in frustration set by Jessica who gently stroke his hand and gave him a "It was worth the try" look. The dog gave a small grow looking right at Snape who was eyeing the dog strangely, apparently looking just as curious as Jessica was when she first saw the dog there.

Fudge left the room after he gave Harry his winnings from the tournament. Dumbledore turned to look at the group in the room.

"There is work to be done, " he said. Molly agreed to join the cause along with her husband Arthur. Bill left the room to go send a letter to his father explaining what happened. Dumbledore asked McGonagall to go get Hagrid and take him to his office, he also gave Madam Pomfrey orders and she left the room also.

Leaving just Harry, Dumbledore, Jessica, Molly, Snape, Ron, Hermione and a big black dog. Dumbledore double checked to see if the door was closed and looked at them once more.

"And now," said Dumbledore. "It is time for two of our number to recognize each other for what they are. Sirius…" Jessica froze. "if you could resume your usual form."

Jessica felt confused and looked all over the room to see if Sirius was really there, then she noticed, the dog taking shape of a man. Snape jumped to his feet, Molly shrieked pointing at him, thinking he was a murderer. Of course Harry, Ron and Hermione were no even surprised to see him, making her believe they knew it was Sirius all along. She felt a slow burn of anger fill her body, at that moment she felt betrayed. Sirius was an animagus and he never told her, this was a great deal for her.

Sirius and Severus stared at each other with great dislike. Dumbledore insisted they shook hands since now they would be working side by side for the same cause. Very slowly, Sirius and Snape moved towards each other and shook hands quickly. Snape went to sit on a bed opposite from where Jessica was.

Like nothing out of the ordinary had happened Sirius gave Jessica a big smile, but she was frowning, Sirius tried to put his arms around her, but she moved out of the way letting Sirius to hug only air, Jessica went to stand next to Snape again, who gave Sirius a triumphant look and shook his head slowly.

Dumbledore gave Sirius orders to go alert Remus, Arabella Figg and Mundungus Fletcher and after he grasped Harry hand briefly, he nodded to Dumbledore, gave a sad look to Jessica and transformed again into a black dog running out of the room.

Snape also was given orders that Jessica did not understand but suspected he was going back to Voldemort as a spy. After Snape left Dumbledore turned to Jessica.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked, Jessica nodded. "You didn't know Sirius was an animagi?"

"No, I didn't know," she said with great sadness.

"Well, I can understand your frustration then," said Dumbledore quietly. "But I hope you two can resolve this, because he needs you and you honestly are miserable without him."

Jessica did not know what to say, mostly because she did not know want to discuss her relationship in front of Harry and his friends.

"I have some things for you to do also," said Dumbledore once she saw Jessica was not going to say anything else about Sirius. "Are you up for it?"

"Yes, of course."

"Okay, first go to your brother William, and alert him and his fiancée of what happened. I want them to watch the muggle news trying to find things that look like it would be related to Voldemort and inform me immediately, anything out of the ordinary will count," he said. "I need you to go back to Brazil, I dare say Pacon won't think twice in joining us, you will need to perhaps alert and train him at the same time, he needs to be prepared to what its coming."

"Alright," said Jessica getting ready to leave. "Anything else?"

"Yes," he replied. "But I will tell you later, once you return from Brazil."

Jessica walked over to Harry, and kissed his forehead.

"Take care," she whispered to his ear. She gave everybody in the room a wave of hands and left.


	14. Grimmaund Place

Jessica did as she was told, first went to see her brother who was more then happy to help in anyway he could. He started on extra pollyjuice potion to have stocks if Dumbledore needed, Jessica thought it was very sweet but probably unnecessary.

Pacon welcomed the new challenge with open arms, just like Dumbledore predicted. First night she was there, they hardly talked about Voldemort, Jessica cried on his shoulders most of the time telling him how Sirius hiding he was an animagus made her feel. As a good friend Pacon listened and helped her with caring words, making her calm down enough to try to go to sleep.

While trying to doze off Jessica kept on thinking for reasons why Sirius never told her. But it was not working very well, and made her feel like she was judging him unfairly. So she decided not to worry about it at the time and try and wait until she could have a word with Sirius. She figured she loved him too much to let a thing like this get on their way. Knowing Sirius, he had a reason for not telling and trying to find out on her own was not helping, so she finally tried to stop thinking so hard and went to sleep.

Jessica spend a total of two weeks down with Pacon and a small group of people he trusted enough to share their alliance, Jessica spend most of the time training them on defense spells. One thing Jessica did not want to teach Pacon when she first trained him fourteen years ago was the Unforgivable Curses, but this time around she made sure to teach him and did not move to another subject until they were all comfortable with it.

After she was confident they all knew everything there is to know about Dark Arts she made sure they would keep recruiting people to join the fight, and to start to be watchful of things going around their country to detect any events that might be linked to Voldemort.

Once she got back to England her first stop was to go see Dumbledore to report how things went.

"Thank you," said Dumbledore, Jessica thought he looked extremely tired. "At least we know that part of the world is in our side and is prepared to face the challenges ahead."

"What is next, Albus?" Jessica asked, since she had no idea what else to do.

"Well, you left so soon you never got to know that I restated the Order of the Phoenix" he said, Jessica open her mouth to tell him she assumed that, but he spoke before she did. "I am sure you figured that one out on your own," he smiled at her. "We have a headquarter for the Order and I am the secret keeper of the location, if you are free right now I can show you."

"Yes, I can go now," said Jessica proactively. "Where is it?"

"It's an old wizard family house in London," he said walking towards Jessica. "Sirius will be there, are you alright with that?"

"Of course," she said smiling. "We have lots to talk about."

"Hold my arm then," he said smiling just like Jessica. "I will apparate you there."

They were now in the middle of a small square. Jessica wondered if they were in the right place, it was a shabby looking place, some houses had broken windows, painting was peeling from many of the doors, the streets and sidewalk was full of trash.

Dumbledore leaned close to Jessica and said to her ears, " Number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London."

Like a balloon the a house appeared in front of her, starting with the door and making its way upwards, pushing the houses in either side out of the way. Jessica followed Dumbledore as he walked up the worn stone steps and faced the door that materialized in front of them. Dumbledore tapped the door once and Jessica heard clicking noises before the door opened.

It was very dark inside, but Jessica knew she was in a hall , the smell was almost unbearable, damp, dust and rotting things. Still following Dumbledore they went further inside of the house. The wallpapers were peeling, the hall way was long and gloomy, cobwebs everywhere. At the end of the hall there was a stair that went to the upstairs and a door.

Behind the door there was a flight of stairs that took them to the kitchen. Jessica noticed that Sirius, Remus, Tonks and Molly were sitting at the table, but was distracted for a few moments by the stony room, made it look like a cavern, pots and pans hanging from the ceiling, a long wooden table stood in the middle.

"Have a seat," said Dumbledore pointing at the table.

Jessica did what he said greeting her friends with hellos.

"First of all," started Dumbledore standing still by the table. "You need to know what we are all doing. Just like you, most of our members are working in recruiting more people to our side. At this moment Severus is working on finding out what Voldemort plans are." Jessica looked at Sirius who twitched his nose a little bit, after that she kept on looking at him.

"What do I need to do next?" said Jessica not breaking eye contact with Sirius. She was actually unexpectedly mad at him, but at the same time trying to fight the anger feeling away.

"Keep on doing your daily work, like nothing is happening. Try to get strong people to join the Order, but be really careful with whom you talk to, Cornelius is really watching the people he has reasons to believe are on my side," he said. "So do your best and beware, Cornelius would love to catch you on action."

"Consider it done," she said, and at this point everybody in the room felt the tension there.

"I believe Jessica and Sirius have unfinished business to take care of," said Dumbledore, and immediately everybody stood up. "We will leave you two to talk about it."

They all left leaving a very tense atmosphere behind.

Jessica hoped Sirius would speak first, but he kept quiet, staring at Jessica and she staring back.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she finally asked, the burn of anger growing bigger because he was so silent.

"Didn't think it was necessary," he said bitterly.

"Seriously?" she asked feeling annoyed. "You don't think this is a big deal?"

He sighed heavily. "I do think it's a big deal. I should've told you, I tried to find a good reason why I never shared this with you and I couldn't find one."

Jessica knew he was waiting for her to say something, perhaps just let the topic go, but she wanted to hear more, so she waited till he spoke again.

"Alright," he said after Jessica silence. "I learned to be an animagus while in school. Werewolves don't harm animal, you see?" Jessica nodded. "So it was a brilliant idea, and honestly really hard, but we managed to do it. You never wondered how Peter learned to transform into a rat?"

"Of course I did," she said quietly. "But I didn't think you had anything to do with it."

"I guess I never told you because I thought these was a secret between friends, and it was never to be told. James transformed into a stag."

"And you honestly think James kept your secret and never told Lily he was an animagus?" asked Jessica sarcastically.

"True," he said thoughtfully. "Didn't think about that," he ran his fingers through his hair once. "I think he did tell her," he sighed again. "I have a really poor judgment of things, can you forgive me?"

"Sirius," said Jessica firmly. "I don't like secrets. I don't believe in keeping things from the person you love. You need to trust me, and right now I don't think you do."

"I made a mistake," said Sirius and at the point he started panicking. "I do trust you, I need you by my side, I can't live without you."

"Is not a matter of leaving you," said Jessica calmly. "I would never leave you Sirius, even if you didn't feel sorry for not telling me I would still stay with you. I am hopeless, that is the bottom line. I don't think anything can part us at this moment."

"I wish you said that before we started having this talk," he said allowing himself to smile for the first time. "I thought I lost you forever."

"You will never loose me," she said reciprocating the smile. "Don't hide anything else from me," she said watching him walk towards her. "Never, ever again," she continued till he pulled her to feet to kiss her.

"These two past weeks were torture," he said still hold her and kissing her on the cheek softly.

"No more secrets then?" Jessica asked to make sure.

"No more secrets," he muttered against her lips before kissing her.

"I didn't forgive you yet," she added when the broke from the kiss. "You will have to work for it," she said teasing him.

"I am at your commend," he went along with the joke bowing in front of her.

Jessica laughed at him and sat back down, Sirius did the same.

"So what is this place?" Jessica asked looking around the kitchen one more time.

"This would be my parents house," said Sirius quietly.

Jessica gaped at him. "I am sorry, must be awful to be back here," she said squeezing his hands.

"It's alright," said Sirius. "I was the one to offer it as a headquarter. At least I can say I did one useful thing for the Order."

"Don't say that," said Jessica feeling really sorry for him. "Peter can't hide forever, we will catch him sooner or later, then we can clear your name, you will see."

"I really don't feel like talking about this right now," he said pulling Jessica closer. "I missed you so bad."

"I missed you too," she said and Sirius was starting to kiss her again but she still wanted to ask more things. "How is Harry doing?"

"Well, he is safe," he said looking concerned. "Figgs and Fetcher are keeping an eye on him at all time. But I imagine he is not doing well. Dumbledore doesn't want us to send him too much information, afraid the letter can get to the wrong person. So, I think he is feeling isolated."

"That is awful," said Jessica. "Doesn't Dumbledore know Harry by now? He will end up doing something that will get him into trouble."

"I worry about the same thing everyday," said Sirius quietly.

"I will stay here with you," she said once she noticed Sirius was getting nervous thinking about his godson.

"Are you?" he asked in surprise. "This place is not livable," he added. "I understand if you don't want to stay here."

"We will have to make it livable, aren't we?" said Jessica caressing his ear lobe with her fingers, it always made him relax. "I think Molly will be happy to help me."

"I think she will," he agreed. "She asked me if she could bring her kids here, so they don't stay on their own when she is here."

"Lets see if she is still here, we can talk with her now," she said, giving him one last kiss time before going to look for Molly.

No doubt Molly was happy to help, as a matter of fact she moved in with all her kids who helped with cleaning and started making the house slowly get better.

At times Jessica felt extremely guilty because she was not there during the day to help Molly, but her wiliness to help was so strong she convinced Jessica it was okay, still, did make Jessica want to be there to help more.

One late night Jessica was finishing the cleaning on the bedroom she was sharing with Sirius when she realized she never took the stairs right in front of her bedroom door to see what was upstairs. Feeling curious she quickly gave her final touches to the her bedroom and went up the stairs.

She reached the top floor, where she found only two doors, one of them catching her attention, it bore a nameplate reading SIRIUS. Jessica felt excited as she pushed the door open. The room was bigger than most of the other bedrooms, with exception of Mrs. Black room. Jessica ran her hands on the bed headboard, which was coved with dust, revealing the most beautiful carved wood work.

The bedroom reminded her of royalty, velvet curtains, chandelier and elegant wardrobe. Still getting the headboard dust out with her hands, she started noticing the pictures on the wall, they were all over the walls, covering almost all the wall paper behind it. Gryffindor posters, girls in their bikinis; making Jessica giggle a bit, a few pictures of motorcycles. Jessica froze at the sight of a picture of the four friends, Remus, James, Sirius and Peter, at Hogwarts standing arm in arm, happily laughing at the camera.

Jessica climb on the bed to take a better look.

"So young," said Sirius standing at the door. "So naïve." He had his eye fixed on Peter. "If we only knew what a scum bag he would grow up to be."

Jessica did not know what to say, she was climbing out of the bed when she heard a crushing paper noise under the pillow. She reached under the pillow to see what it was. It was a picture.

"Don't.." said Sirius, but his voice died down.

Holding the picture with her hands, Jessica felt her eyes fill with tears. It was a picture of Lily and her at Hogwarts, sitting by the lake, reading the same book. Lily was holding one side of the cover with her left hand and Jessica was doing the same but with her right hand. Their body was facing the lake, and only their heads were looking at the camera. None looked pretty, or ready for the picture. Jessica looked puzzled and Lily looked annoyed.

Jessica started laughing when her memory took her back to that day. Sirius was already sitting by her on the bed.

"I remember when you guys took this picture," said Jessica.

"Yes," he said putting her arms around her. "Is picture clear in my mind," he said smiling widely.

"Lily was so mad," Jessica recalled. "You called our attention, and James took the picture. Lily jumped to her feet and demanded the camera."

"But James wouldn't give it to her," Sirius continued. "He started saying he would use it to brew a potion to make her go out with him. It was classic," both were laughing a little harder now.

"This was our third year," Jessica said thoughtfully. "You kept it all those year?"

"It kept me sane, while I was at home." He said getting the picture from her and putting it on his pocket, inside his robes. "Except the last time I came here, this picture was like hunting me actually," he added.

"I imagine," she said calmly. "I was so mad, you attacked Severus leaving him in really bad shape."

"Only because he dared kiss you in front of me," said Sirius reliving bitter memories.

Jessica smiled softly. "Kissed me to make you jealous."

"So he says," says Sirius. "I bet he enjoyed more than just the pleasure of making me jealous."

Jessica and Sirius talked for hours. She felt glad she found his bedroom, his personality screaming from every corner, making them even closer than before.


	15. Prophecy and Dementors

Work at the Department of Mysteries was rapidly becoming a burden to Jessica. Dumbledore frequently visited her, making her co-workers not want to associate with Jessica, rumors flying around of her alliance to Dumbledore and his cause. Over and over again Jessica explained that it was only rumor, and nothing beyond that.

One bright Summer morning Jessica came to her office to find her boss Mr. Brisson was already waiting for her.

"Good Morning Mss. Thompson," he said calmly as she entered.

"Good Morning," she replied back feeling a bit worried. "What gives me the pleasure of your early visit?"

Before he spoke again he looked at the door and muttered an incantation, Jessica recognized it, he was making sure no one could hear what they were about to talk about.

"I never asked you personally," he said with a pause. "Are the rumors going around true?"

Jessica hesitated.

"I am asking as a friend not your boss," he added carefully.

"Do you believe Harry Potter words?" She asked firmly. "Do you believe Voldemort is back?"

"I don't know," he said showing frustration. "Do you?"

"Every single word, every single detail that child says is true," she said with conviction. "I have no doubts."

"The rumors are true then?" he insisted.

"That is not what I am saying," she said. "I just need to know what side you are on."

"I suppose I do believe You-Know-Who is back," he said with quaver in his voice. "But at the same time my mind or heart keeps denying it, over and over again."

"Your feelings strike me as fear," she worried. "And this is not the man I know, is not in your nature to be afraid"

"But I am," he said pacing the room now. "It might be the old age, the suspense, not knowing what to believe, what to think, and how to act. A big part of me wants to start fighting right away, but part of me wishes to remain ignorant."

"I think that is Voldemort plans," she said conjuring a cup of water, which Brisson gladly took and sat back down. "He is ripping the Wizardry community apart, that is the only reason why I think he chose not to come out to the open just yet. Remember Harry was not suppose to live to tell the tale, but he did. We must take advantage of the fact we know he is back."

"So now you are saying the rumors are true."

"Yes", Jessica finally confirmed. "Dumbledore reformed the Order of the Phoenix hours after Voldemort came back," Mr. Brisson was pale now. "Do you know the reason why I am telling you this?"

"I think so," he said with skepticism. "You want me to join."

"Will you?" Jessica asked.

"I am much too old for this, I don't have the energy anymore," he replied. "But, your secret is safe with me. I am glad you are doing something to fight back, if I was a few years younger I would be right by your side, you know that, don't you?"

"Yes, I understand," she said with disappointment.

Brisson gave her a nod and left her office. The reason why Dumbledore was coming by so often was to see if Jessica had asked her boss to join the Order, and Jessica knew better than just coming up to Brisson asking about it, he was the kind of person that responded better to challenges if he was the one inquiring.

Jessica decided she was not going to give up, give him some time and wait with patience, it was just a matter of time for him to change his mind, and she had no doubts he would come around.

It was hard to concentrate in her work that morning. Voldemort was too quiet, not even Snape knew for sure what he was up to, and this bothered her beyond words, from time to time Harry face would pop up into her head, making her stomach feel sick with the thought of him locked up in Privet Drive with the worse kind of muggle there is.

Her attempt to eat lunch was a disaster, he barely touched the food she bought from the Ministry cafeteria. On her way back to the Department of Mysteries she walked by Lucius Malfoy at the corridor leading to the Circular Room. Strangely as it might seem seeing him down there, she totally ignored the oddness. Until, like a silent voice screaming inside of her own head he clearly heard the words. _Imperio._

Without hesitating she got her wand out and yelled. "PROTEGO."

Malfoy looked in shock and Jessica took advantage of his moment of weakness and cast a second spell disarming him.

Jessica aimed her wand straight at his chest, anger boiling inside her.

"How dare you?" she asked, and he simply gave a cynical smile. "HOW DARE YOU?" she demanded again screaming.

He just stared at her, like nothing happened, making Jessica feel even angrier. She pushed him with her hands, he hit the wall behind him, she pressed her wand at his right jaw, making Malfoy for the first time feel frighted.

"What are you going to do?" he said. "You don't have the gusts to curse me."

"Watch me," she said pressing the wand a little more, making it harder for him to breathe, "Tell me what you are up to."

"None of your business," he said looking around, for sure trying to find a way out.

"Make it my business then, since you were about to make me your little puppet." There was silence. "What does your master want with me?"

"Jessica, what on earth are you doing?" said Brisson when the spotted the scene before him when he turned into the corridor Jessica and Lucius were at.

"This dirt bag was about to put the Imperious Curse on me," she said letting Malfoy go, knowing he wouldn't try anything in front of Brisson. He quickly recovered is wand from the floor near by and put it away.

"Prove it," he said coldly.

"She doesn't have to," Brisson quickly added. "Jessica's word is law for me, if she says this is what happened then I believe her."

"You might, but I don't think anyone else will be fool enough to believe it," he said and stormed away.

"You can't avoid it much longer," Jessica silently said to Brisson. "Voldemort is getting closer and closer, not before long he will be at your door, don't you want to be prepared?"

"Alright," he said thoughtfully. "Send Dumbledore to talk with me, will you?"

"Yes," she was bursting with happiness inside. "I really need to go now, I need to report what Malfoy is up to."

Jessica send a note to Dumbledore to meet her at the headquarters and apparated a block away from Sirius house and walked there as fast as she could. When she got to the kitchen she was greeted by Remus, Molly, Sirius and Severus.

"She is alright," said Snape as soon as he set an eye on her. "She hasn't been cursed."

"How will you know?" Molly asked annoyed. "You surely can't tell she is fine just by looking at her."

"No he can't," said Sirius angrily. "But I can," he added proudly, "she is fine."

"What is your childhood nickname?" Remus asked Jessica.

"Jess," she quickly replied.

"Do you have a godson?" Molly followed.

"Unofficially, Harry Potter."

"When did you and Sirius reunite?" Remus went on with the questionnaire.

"Last summer," said Jessica starting to feel frustrated.

"And where did you guys hide?" Remus asked again.

"Brazil," Jessica sighed .

"That is enough," said Sirius feeling just as annoyed as Jessica.

"So," Jessica started after she realized the questioning was over. "You guys already know."

"Yes," the four voices chorused..

"I found out minutes after Malfoy left," said Snape. "I alerted Dumbledore at once and came here to wait for news."

At this moment Dumbledore entered the room.

"Jessica, you are alright." Dumbledore said with relief. "You got me worried."

She smiled at him, but was quickly interrupted by Molly.

"And how do you know she is not cursed?" she said loudly.

Dumbledore looked puzzled for a second. "Fine," he said. "Give me the day and location you and Sirius kissed for the first time."

"Our seventh year at Hogwarts, Valentines Day at the Shrieking Shack," she mocked.

She saw Molly shake her head disapproving her mocking.

"Tell us what happened," said Sirius helping Jessica to a chair next to him.

"Malfoy tried the Imperius Curse on me," Jessica said, but no one looked surprised. "But he was to slow, I blocked him and disarmed him."

"Impressive," Dumbledore said. "I know you are more powerful then Lucius, but he can be really sneaky."

"Do you know what Voldemort wants from me?" Jessica asked Snape.

"Yes," Snape answered. "He finally revealed his plan to us, he wants something that is inside of the Ministry of Mysteries." Jessica froze, she looked at Dumbledore who was just as shocked as she was their eyes, met. "He wants to retrieve a prophecy, from the Hall of Prophecies."

The room went silent. Jessica and Dumbledore still frozen staring at each other.

"Do you know what prophecy Voldemort wants?" asked Sirius catching Jessica's attention.

She looked around and found everyone in the room staring back and forth between her and Dumbledore.

"Yes," said Jessica realizing what this news meant to Harry, she stood up and said firmly to Dumbledore who was across the table. "You got to get Harry out of Privet Drive, he will be safer here."

"He is quite safe where he is now," Dumbledore simply said.

"Dumbledore he spends most of the days wandering around in muggle streets," she said. "How is that safe?"

"I trust Mrs. Figgs and Mundungus," Dumbledore replied.

"You can't be serious," said Jessica starting to sound furious. Molly was shaking her head like mad.

"I have no idea why Harry came into this conversation," said Sirius with a firm tone. "But I agree, this gone too far. It's time to bring Harry here, where he belongs. I can keep an eye on him, it's my duty."

"Oh, please…" Snape started mocking but Jessica quickly interrupted if a sharp "Don't start."

"I will think about it," said Dumbledore thoughtfully. "For now lets call an urgent meeting with all of our members tonight, we will guard the entrance to the Department of Mysteries 24 hours a day, we can work out a schedule tonight."

"I think you should know Voldemort is not going to get the prophecy if his plan is to use the Imperius Curse to have someone go and get it," said Jessica, everybody in the room listening. "Once the orb is on the shelf only Harry or Voldemort can get it out."

"And appears Voldemort is ignorant of this fact," said Dumbledore looking at Snape who nodded. "But sooner or later he will find out so we need to be prepared."

"I almost forgot," said Jessica. "Brisson wants you to go talk with him, I think he will join the Order, I already talked with him."

"Perfect timing," said Dumbledore delighted. "I will go see him now, this way he can join us tonight."

After Dumbledore left, Sirius quickly left the kitchen and Jessica followed him upstairs to their room.

He closed the door behind Jessica and gave her a warm hug.

"I was worried about you," he said kissing her softy. "If it wasn't for Remus I would've gone get you, he held me back."

Jessica considered telling Sirius it was crazy to think of going to get her at the Ministry, and tell him she was glad Remus stopped him, but she held back, she chose to appreciate his concern and not to spoil their tender moment.

"Tell me about this prophecy," said Sirius lighting a couple of candles.

"I really shouldn't," said Jessica and Sirius looked at her surprised. "But I will tell you if you never mention it again."

Sirius nodded.

"Someone made a prophecy to Dumbledore sixteen years ago, it was about Harry and Voldemort," Jessica started telling him what she knew. "I was the one that put the orb on the shelf, and by a mistake, still don't understand why and how I heard it."

"And what did it say?" he asked.

"I don't remember the whole thing, just parts of it," Jessica started to concentrate hard to try and remember what the prophecy said. "Something about the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord was going to be born as the seventh month died, something about Harry having powers Voldemort doesn't know. The only thing that is clear in my mind is a part that hunts me almost everyday. It said, _either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives_."

Sirius had a grim look on his face. "So one has to kill the other?"

"I think so," said Jessica quietly. "But at the same time I keep thinking it might be a riddle, like there is something more to it. Too bad I can't remember the whole thing."

Sirius only nodded and sat there for a long time thinking about the things Jessica told him.

It was easy to work a schedule to guard the door to the Department of Mysteries. They had more then enough volunteers and the plan was to have an Order member present in all time under the invisibility cloak Moody was so willing to share.

It was the first Monday of August now, a hot summer night, Jessica and Sirius were sitting cozily in a loveseat on their bedroom.

"Are you sure this is okay?' Jessica asked Sirius who was stroking Jessica's legs.

He smiled and nodded. Jessica as reading a book, _The Goncourt Journals_, and Sirius sat there quietly looking at her, she kept thinking he was bored, but at he kept saying he was fine so she tried to believe him.

Jessica suddenly closed her book, there was something different in the air, but she didn't know what. Sirius set up straight in alarm.

"Is something wrong?" he asked and at the same time she felt cold air fill the room, as a matter of seconds it was warm again. The same feeling she had during the third task.

"Did you feel that?" she asked sounding worried. "I was cold here for a few seconds."

"No," there was skepticism in his voice but a slight quaver was there, too.

"I think something might be wrong with Harry," she said putting the book aside to go look out the window.

"Do you think so?" asked Sirius with fear.

Jessica conjured her patronus and said. "Mundungus Fletcher, is Harry alright?" The jet of silver went shooting to the sky. "He is supposed to be watching Harry tonight, lets wait for his answer."

Sirius cracked the window open a couple inches to let a bit of fresh air in. Jessica stood so close to the window her face almost touched the glass, Sirius stood behind her hugging her gently. They waited for about ten minutes and nothing.

"Maybe I should go there," said Jessica turning around and heading for the door, when they heard a the doorbell ring.

They practically ran downstairs and met Kingsley waiting at the bottom of the stairs, with Molly by his side.

"I have news," he said before Jessica and Sirius could ask him anything. "Harry produced a Patronus Charm a few minutes ago. The Ministry is sending him a letter telling him he is expelled from Hogwarts," Jessica covered her mouth with shock.

"Expelled?" they heard an angry voice from upstairs. "They can't expel Harry," Hermione appeared behind Sirius and Jessica, quickly followed by all the Weasleys children.

"Upstairs now," said Molly furiously. "Shoo, go now."

The Weasleys left at once but Hermione stood there like a rock.

"Dumbledore is at the Ministry now trying to reverse the situation," Kingsley told Hermione who was near tears. "He can fix it."

"Hermione," said Jessica. "It's alright, Harry will be at Hogwarts with you guys, please go upstairs, I personally will go tell you all we know, when I find out more details."

Feeling a bit suspicious Hermione slowly turned around and went back upstairs.

"I am going to go to Mrs. Figg house," said Jessica once Hermione disappeared from view.

"No need," said Kingsley calmly. "I already send Tonks there, met her on my way here, she will be back soon."

"So we do nothing?" asked Sirius angrily.

"What do you suggest we do?" Kingsley asked calmly, even though Sirius head was about to explode with anger.

Jessica knew the next word out of Sirius was going to be a yell and was glad they all changed their attention to the kitchen where the heard someone arrive through floo powder.

"He is alright," said Tonks shaking the ashes off her. "Harry is fine, Mrs. Figg got him safely home."

She went on explaining Harry used magic out of self defense, he was attacked by dementors and drove them away with his patronus. After her tale they all started summoning the others Order members, since they knew Dumbledore would arrive from the Ministry wanting to plan their next move.

Surely enough Dumbledore made the arrangement to get Harry out of Privet Drive and bring him to Grimmauld Place. He also explained Harry was to attend a hearing at the Ministry to decide if he would be expelled or not.

Despite the horrible events of the night, Sirius was extra jolly when they were going to bed, Harry was finally coming to stay with him.


	16. Christmas Surprise

Harry arrived couple of days later and had his hearing a week after that, of course he got off and things started going back to normal, except that Jessica thought Harry being there was going to put Sirius in a very good mood, but to the contrary he had a bit of a temper all the time and Jessica suspected he was anticipating that is a couple of weeks Harry and the kids would leave to Hogwarts, Molly would go back to her house and he would spend a lot of time by himself.

The kids left for school as the month of September started. After the first week went by Sirius moodiness turned into depression. Worried about him Jessica went to ask Brisson for a month off, as a vacation period.

"Why don't you stay with him more than that," he explained. "I can send you in a top secret mission, you haven't gone in one of those for years." He winkled. "I want to be stationed at Grimmauld Place at once, till I say your work is done, doesn't matter how long it takes."

Jessica smiled at him, before she left Brisson added the words, "the Ministry needs you, don't disappoint me," waiving at her.

This news certainly cheered Sirius a bit, they had a few weeks for pure enjoyment. The winter weather was starting to blow through the poorly sealed windows, and every fire in the house was lit, making the house look a bit more homey.

The only problem Jessica was having was with Severus now, every time he came by he expressed his outrage at Jessica choices. He couldn't let go of the fact Jessica was spending her days locked in a house, not making use of her talents. Jessica strongly disagreed and they often had heated arguments over the topic. Luckily Jessica managed to hide what was going on between Severus and her, Jessica knew if Sirius got involved things would get a lot worse.

One night Severus was giving his weekly report when he did the unthinkable.

"Now Dumbledore," he said piercing his eyes. "I stayed quiet about this matter long enough. How long will all of you let Jessica waste herself locked up in this house?"

"Severus, shut your mouth," Jessica spoke is a tone no one ever heard her speak before.

But it was too late Sirius was already on his feet going towards Snape, but Remus stopped Sirius before he got to him.

"Is that what you think?" Sirius roared. "That she is wasting her time her time with me?"

"I am only saying what everyone else is thinking," he said coldly, totally ignoring Sirius struggle trying to break free.

Jessica looked around the table full of her friends and they all avoided her eye, she then looked at Sirius who stopped struggling and was doing the same thing she was trying to do, but they all avoided his eye contact as well.

Remus relaxed his arms that were wrapped around Sirius and he broke free, but he did not go for Severus, he stormed out of the kitchen instead.

Jessica stood there searching for words. Everyone else in the room seemed to be having the same trouble.

"I disagree with Severus," said Tonks timidly. "If I was on her position I would do the same for the one I love."

Relief overcame Jessica to know that at least one person understood her. She gathered her strengths to express her feelings.

"My whole life I loved Sirius with mind, heart and soul, to the point that when I am without him I am half complete. I waited twelve years to see the man I love back in my arms. How dare you say what I am doing now is waste of time?"

"It is," Snape insisted. "You do nothing else besides sit around all day and use your power for house cleaning."

"I am making up for lost time," she said angrily.

"There is no such thing as making up for lost time," he said ironic. "You can make up time, you can however move forward, and you don't realize that."

"We are moving forward," she said puzzled. "Moving forward in our relationship."

"Sure," he said mocking. "Move forward in your relationship and freeze everything else in your life, what a brilliant idea."

"Oh, stopped it Snivelius," Tonks snapped.

Snape was taken aback by the way she called him that he stopped talking.

"I don't think she is wasting her time," started Brisson. "That is why I gave her this time off, I have the power to call her back to work anytime I want. I am not surprised to hear that Severus disapproves, but the rest of you? Don't you guys know how much she loves that man?"

"I have no doubt in my mind that she loves him," Severus spoke. "Still I don't understand why, when he clearly doesn't love her back, not the way she loves him. If he was truly in love with her he would never allowed her to stay locked in this house for three months, wasting all her talents, because he can't go out he is holding her back, how selfish is that?"

Jessica felt like crying now, for some odd reason she felt humiliated.

"That is enough Severus," said Dumbledore harshly. "Your work is done for tonight, you may go. We all have to go."

At those words everybody left. Tonks gave her a small hug before she went out of the door.

It was hard to move, she was feeling angry because Severus was bold enough to say what he was feeling in front of everybody, feeling disappointed that Sirius didn't stick around to take the beating with her and feeling sad that only two friends truly understood her.

Jessica fixed a pot of tea, got to cups and went to her bedroom to find Sirius.

He was at the window looking the street below, covered with white snow.

"Sirius, I want you to forget about it," said Jessica. "Severus doesn't understand me, and never will. Come have tea with me please."

She gave him the cup of tea and they sat together taking small sips and none spoke another word.

"Thanks," said Sirius once his cup was empty.

"No problem," she replied back.

The past three months they spend together were the best times of Jessica's life. It was full of fun and laughter, there was not a dull moment when she was around him, and for the first time, in a long time, there was this awkwardness between them.

"I love you," said Sirius almost in a whisper. "I need to apologize to you, I think I've been selfish."

"Why is that?" she said getting closer to him, resting her head on his shoulders.

"As must as I hate Snape I have to agree with him this much," he said softly.

"You would be selfish if you were keeping me here against my will, but I am the one that wants to be here with you," she said smelling his hair. "You have no choice on that, I want to be here, end of story."

"You wouldn't go back to work if I asked you?" he asked.

"If you asked me this morning I would consider," she said giggling. "But after what Severus did I really don't want to go back, it will give him the pleasure of being right. I bet you don't want that, do you?"

He laughed. "No I don't."

The moment of awkwardness was just that, a moment and nothing more. Christmas as just a few weeks away and they started decorating the house. Sirius at times acted all mysterious, making Jessica think he was planning something special for her.

Harry came to stay a bit earlier than they anticipated. Arthur Weasley was attacked while at his post at the Department of Mysteries, and some how Harry saw the attack on his sleep. Bringing Jessica another thing to worry about, Harry's mind seemed to be somehow connected to Voldemort.

Everybody tried their best to set the worries aside to enjoy the holidays. On Christmas morning Sirius announced that Jessica's mom, brother and fiancée were coming over to spend the day. Jessica was sure that was the surprise he was planning.

After they had lunch Harry and the Weasleys went to visit Arthur at the hospital and Jessica had a time to enjoy her family even more.

"Jessica," Sirius called her. "Merry Christmas." He handed her a single red rose. He muttered an incantation and the pedals started falling one by one, and some would dance around her like pedals flying in the wind, but there was no breeze around her. Jessica was so busy watching what the pedals were doing that took her a while to realize was inside the rose.

It was a ring, an engagement ring. Almost instantly Jessica was in tears. Sirius knelt down in front of her, and took her by the left hand.

"Jessica Thompson, will you marry me?" he asked choking up, fighting his emotions.

"Yes," Jessica replied on the spot. "Of course," she hugged him before he could stand up.

It was the best Christmas ever, the whole house was bursting with good feelings.

Jessica and Sirius made the plans to get marry as soon as he named was cleared, which they all expected to be soon.

Tonks was hysterical when she found out, she stayed over one day waiting till everybody left, or went to bed. Sirius, Jessica and Tonks where sitting on the kitchen table when Jessica politely signaled Sirius to go upstairs.

"Aww," he faked an yawn. "I think I will go to bed. So tired," he locked lips with Jessica for a kiss goodnight and went up stairs.

"You did it," said Tonks. "I can't believe you are engaged. Wow, Sirius is getting married;" she said blankly.

"Alright, tell me what is bothering you," Jessica knew she needed to talk.

"I like Remus you know?" she said.

"Yeah," Jessica replied.

"You do?" Tonks asked in surprise.

"It's kind of obvious actually," said Jessica smiling. "One doesn't need to be seer to find that out."

"Really?" she asked again and Jessica nodded. "Do you think he noticed?"

"Not sure," said Jessica thoughtfully. "He might."

"I want him to like me back," she said sounding a bit depressed.

"Remus is a difficult person," Jessica explained. "He was never in a relationship, because he doesn't think a werewolf can actually have a normal life. He is complicated."

"I know he is," she agreed. "But that is part of what I like in him."

"I think he can like you, with a bit a work I know he will like you," said Jessica sympathetically. "Just be patient and be ready for a long road ahead you."

"Thank you for listening," she said realizing it was late. "I work early tomorrow, I have to go."

"No problem," said Jessica. "Come more often, I miss our talks."

"Alright," she said cheery.

Tonks left and Jessica went to bed, to find Sirius awake waiting for her.


	17. Very Privet Wedding

Month of January flew by and it was now the first week of February. Sirius talked Jessica into going back to work, which she did. She was also guarding the prophecy three to four times a week, giving her little time with Sirius, but their relationship was not suffering.

Sirius was going out of his way to be nice to her. Jessica appreciated his efforts because she knew he was bored out of his mind from being locked in the house, he was moody to everyone around him, but always sweet to her.

At times Remus even made fun for Jessica's special treatment and Sirius would simply say, "I could never be rude to my future wife." But that only made Remus tease him even more.

One day at work Pacon stopped by at Jessica's office. It was a nice surprise because they hadn't seen each other in months. Pacon was quick to notice the engagement ring.

"Did you guys set a date yet?" he asked.

"No," Jessica whispered. "We need to wait till his name clears."

Pacon laughed hysterically. "Jeez, I thought you were smart Jessica."

"Okay," Jessica laughing a bit. "What am I missing?"

"Ministry of Magic," he said pointing at himself.

"So?" Jessica asked.

"I can marry you," he said proudly. "You will be legitimate married in Brazil, not up here of course."

"Really?" Jessica asked. "Can I do that?"

"Not really," he said cleverly. "But I can."

"No risks?" she made sure.

"No one will ever know," he replied. "Only the people you tell or invite."

"Can I set a date?" she felt her heart racing.

"Now?" he was surprised.

"Yes," she said with excitement. " I know the date I want. February 14th, the same day we started dating."

"February 14th it is," he said smiling. "I guess location will be Grimmauld Place?"

"Yes," she said laughing.

"See you in two weeks then," he said before he left the door.

It was mid-day but Jessica could not just sit at work, she wrote Tonks a note asking her to meet her at Sirius house and left the Ministry. Sirius was shocked to see her back early and literally cried like a baby when she told him Pacon was going to marry them.

"Two weeks?" he said drying out his tears. "We are going to get married," he hugged her closely, lifting her of the floor and spinning her around.

He summoned Remus, and Tonks arrived minutes after Jessica. The four celebrated between friends till late at night.

Jessica went to go see her mom the next day to tell her they had a date for the wedding, after sharing some tears together Jessica asked if her mom could sew her a wedding dress in two weeks.

"I don't need to sew you a dress," she said proudly. "I already have."

"You made me a wedding dress already?" Jessica asked surprised.

"I am old Jessica, we never know when my heath will have a ugly turn," she said with twinkle in her eyes. "So, right after Christmas I started working on it, I know your measurements, you are the same exact dress size since your teens."

"I want to see it," said Jessica impatiently.

"Is up in your room," her mom said softly. "In the closet," she added but Jessica was already half way upstairs."

She opened her closet door like a child opening a present. It was dark inside the closet, but the fabric was so white it expelled a bit of light all around it. It was perfect, more then Jessica could ever ask for. Her mom came into the room Jessica as already putting the dress on. It fit her perfectly, the collar was in deep "v" shape, it had short sleeves, the top part of the dress aligned with her body showing of her tiny waist. The bottom part of it was a plain straight elegant skirt, long enough that she could only see the tips of her toes showing.

"I look like royalty," she said feeling emotional.

"Not yet," her mom gave her a box, which Jessica quickly opened, it was a tiara. "It's been in our family for years, and it is your now."

"Thank you mom, it's beautiful," she said giving her a warm hug.

"Your dad would be overjoyed if he was alive," she whispered to her ear. "He was quite fond of Sirius."

"Thank you again," Jessica said drying her tears.

"Now lets, get to work," her mom said smiling, "We have a wedding to plan."

"We have wedding to plan," Jessica repeated squeaking like a teenager.

The morning of the wedding Jessica woke up feeling a bit tired, she had a hard time falling asleep the night before out of anxiety, Sirius to the contrary slept like a baby, snoring loudly once in a while.

Jessica tried to slowly get out of bed not to wake Sirius up, but failed, Sirius opened his eyes as soon as Jessica sat up straight.

"Good morning," said Jessica, scratching his back.

"Morning already?" he sounded half asleep.

Jessica nodded and Sirius smiled wide, she could tell he was as happy as she was.

"My beloved, today we shall enter the laces of matrimony," he said jokingly.

"Yeah it's finally here," she said dreamily. "Can you believe it?"

"Oh yes," he said kissing her hand. "I've been watching for this day since I met you."

He kissed her arm upward till he reached her neck. Jessica heart was racing, she wanted him but at the same time she knew they really didn't have the time.

"Sirius I have less then two hours to get ready," she said trying to control herself.

"You don't need that much," he said moving to her ears.

"No, I actually need three hours," she said laughing.

"Ouch," he said getting out of bed. "And we've been married for how long? 40 years?"

Jessica was unsure of what to say, surely he wasn't trying to pick a fight the morning of their wedding. Sirius detected Jessica's worries.

"I am teasing you," he said smiling at her. "But, now, seriously don't let what we are doing today ruin this," he said pointing at the bed with a boyish look.

"Never," she said kissing him softly.

"I will go now," he said "Let you get all pretty, make sure you are not too gorgeous or you might make me look shabby."

"I will do my best," she said smiling at him as he walked out of the door.

Jessica took the longest bubble bath of her life. Molly brought her breakfast to her bedroom and was joined by Lydia and Tonks, they all helped Jessica get ready. Took them longer than they anticipated to get Jessica's hair done, Jessica wanted soft curls and her long straight hair was not agreeing with that, they tried all sorts of magic and what ended up saving the day was a bottle of hair spray Lydia brought with her.

"I think we are done here," Jessica's mom said with her eyes full of water.

Jessica was looking at the mirror, hardly believing her eyes. She couldn't image she would look that good, she stared at the reflection of the three ladies admiring her dress behind her, and she realized Lily wasn't there, in her heart she wished Lily was there.

"What is the matter sweetie?" her mom asked.

Jessica looked back to her own reflection to see the smile on her face vanished. "Lily," she sighed saying it softly.

"Lily, right," said Tonks. "That reminds me. _Accio Bouquet._" Tonks walked to the door just in time a white flowers bouquet showed up. "I made it myself," she said proudly. "They are Oriental Lilies, thought you would like that."

Jessica felt a small tear running down her face. "It's beautiful, thank you."

"No tears," said Molly. "We need to get going we are already ten minutes late."

They all took turns hugging Jessica.

"Give us five minutes and then you go down," said Molly before she closed the door.

She waited and took to deep breaths before she opened the door. Jessica immediately heard the guests murmurs, she slowly walked down the stairs to the formal living where they had arranged for the ceremony. Remus was at the bottom waiting for her.

"Jessica," he said when he saw her. "Wow, you look stunning."

"Thank you," she said staring to shake a little bit.

"I will go in there, say you are ready," he said. "I will close the door, and when I open it again you walk in towards Sirius, alright?"

"Okay," she said feeling nervous.

"Don't trip," he said smiling, "That would be really bad."

"Remus," Jessica smiled back, "just go please."

He gave a little laugh before he went into the room closing the door, after only a few minutes he opened it again. The room went from general murmuring to total silent. A violin started to play, Jessica spotted her brother Willy playing it, she felt emotional, since this came as a surprise to her.

Remus extended his hands. "Will you give me the pleasure to walk you down the aisle?" Jessica smiled and allowed Remus to hold her arm.

Every single eye was turned to Jessica, and she heard sigh from every direction. Then she saw him, Sirius was standing in front of her, his eyes fixed on her, his smile was a bit too big for his face, small tears were running down his cheek.

Jessica walked towards him not breaking eye contact. Remus gave her a warm hug and whispered "You both deserve this," he gave Sirius a brotherly hand sake. Jessica dried the tears from his face, he let a small laugh out.

"I thought you would be the one doing the crying, not me," he said.

"I did my crying upstairs," she whispered.

They then turned to Pacon, who stood in front of them.

"It is great pleasure that we gather here together to celebrate the union of two people who time and time again reminded us that love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves."

Jessica mom was in the front row sobbing silently into a handkerchief.

"Jessica and Sirius have declared their love to one another for a long time," Pacon said looking at the small group of people gathered there. "Now, they come before you to reaffirm the bond between them and to make a lifelong commitment to each other. For them, this old and honored ritual marks a new beginning. In this ceremony, Sirius and Jessica will confess their commitment before all of us. But more, they make these promises to themselves and to each other. Today they pledge their love and their trust, their support and their understanding. For them, I welcome each of you."

Jessica and Sirius looked back at their friends who where all smiling at them and nodding showing their approval.

"Rings please," Pacon asked and Remus quickly gave him both rings. Pacon handed the first ring to Sirius.

"Do you, Jessica, take Sirius, as your lawfully wedded husband, to love and cherish until death do you part?"

"I do," said Jessica . Sirius then got Jessica by the hand to put her wedding band on her finger.

Pacon gave Jessica the second ring.

"Do you, Sirius, take Jessica as your lawfully wedded wife, to love and cherish until death do you part?"

"I do," said Sirius. Jessica then placed Sirius ring on his finger.

"Then I now pronounce you husband and wife," he said smiling widely. "My dear friend," he said to Jessica, "You may now kiss the groom."

Jessica leaned over and gave him a gentle, tender kiss. Sirius however had other plans in mind, he held her neck and pulled her close and gave her a passionate kiss. They heard a couple of people wolf-whistled, making Jessica and Sirius start laughing so they had to break apart.

The festivities carry out throughout the day, for one day only everybody seemed happy, forgetting for a few hours the worries and stress they all shared due to Voldemort's plans. It was a perfect day from start all the way to the very last breath Jessica took before going to sleep.


	18. Broken Friendship

A few days after her wedding, Severus stopped by the Ministry to visit Jessica. He did not go to the wedding, but he wanted to give Jessica his best wishes anyway.

"You should've gone," Jessica told him.

"No," he said. "It was out of my place to show up there, I would feel quite strange."

"It was a very nice day," Jessica told him. "I am very happy."

"I can see that, you are glowing," he said.

Jessica smiled. "So tell me what is news?" she asked. "How are things at Hogwarts?"

"Umbrigde is a nasty piece of work," said Snape with great dislike.

"I know her well," said Jessica sharing his dislike.

"I think she will sack Trelawney," he informed Jessica.

"One thing that I don't understand, is why Dumbledore keeps her there," Jessica said going through a pile of paper on top of her desk. "She is just an old fraud."

"I agree, most of her predictions are just things she makes up," he agreed.

"What do you mean, most of her predictions?" Jessica asked surprised.

"Well she did make a real prediction to Harry couple of years ago," he reminded her. "And she did make a real one to Dumbledore also, years ago."

Jessica heart accelerated a bit. "And how do you know that?"

"Oh, it was the night I interviewed for a job at Hogwarts," he said casually. "I overheard part of it."

"Oh, I see," Jessica tried to act normal, but she was shaking inside. "Will you wait just a second? I need to take this down the hall."

"Sure, no problem," agreed Severus.

Jessica left the room in great hurry, she had to check something. She threw the paper she was holding in the first trash can she came across. As fast as she could she walked down the Hall of Prophecies till she got to the one she was looking for.

She was just few inches from the shelf when she said, "Let it not be Sybil." Taking a big breath she looked at the orb in front of her, her fears were confirmed, printed in the orb was S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D.

Jessica let out a small scream of pain, her heart aching like it had been ripped open, her legs felt weak so she sunk to the floor sobbing so hard she felt giant tear roll down her neck. Years ago when she put that prophecy on the self she regconized Albus Dumbledore name, but had no idea who was the seer who made the prophecy, and now she knew who it was, it was Sybil Patricia Trelawney.

Trying to do her best to dry her tears, and look normal she quickly returned to her office.

"You told him," said Jessica with great anger.

"What are you talking about?" Severus looked back at her confused.

"That prophecy you overheard," Jesssica instantly saw great fear come to his eyes. "It was the prophecy between Harry and Voldemort, and you ran back to your master to tell him everything, didn't you"

"You don't understand," he said panicking. "Let me explain."

Jessica just stood there waiting for him to try and explain.

"Alright," he said. "I did tell the Dark Lord, but I had no idea he would guess the prophecy was about Lily's unborn son. When I found out he was going hunt them down and kill them, I begged him to spare Lily, I really did, and he would've done, but she wouldn't step away, so he killed her."

Jessica felt sick to her stomach, disgust running through her veins.

"And Harry and James?" Jessica asked coldly. "You just let them die? Was that your great plan to get Lily? Kill her son and husband?"

Snape lowered his head. "I am sorry Jessica."

"Listen to me, because I will only say it once," said Jessica making him look at her again. "You disgusts me, I never ever wish to speak to you again, I don't want to hear from you ever again. You will leave my office and never return, from now on you are dead for me."

He opened his mouth to speak, but Jessica quickly said "Goodbye." Giving him no choice but to leave and never return.

Jessica was the one in a bad mood now, every time Snape had a report to give she would find something more important to do. Sirius asked couple of times what the fight was all about and Jessica always told him that now she agreed with Sirius, that Snape was not to be trusted. Months went by and Jessica was not letting go of her anger. Sirius was already asking Dumbledore to have Harry come and stay with him for the summer.

"We will see," Dumbledore said in one occasion. "He will have to go his aunt for at least one week, I agree he might be safer here."

At this news Sirius was feeling cheerful, which was perfect because at times it was so contagious that made Jessica forget her disgust for Snape.

The tension between Sirius and Severus was growing even more as the days went by. Apparantly they were tolerating each other out of respect for Jessica, now that the friendship was over, they put their claws out and things went from bad to worse.

Everytime Severus came by, he was quick to remind all the people present that he was out there risking his life and Sirius wasn't doing anything, just sitting around at the comfort of his own house. Sadly, Sirius did not have a whole lot of argument over that, giving Snape even more insentive to keep on torturing Sirius.


	19. Ministry Battle

It was June now and Jessica and Sirius love was stronger than ever, the bond between them was so strong that they knew it could never be broken, although they were married for just a few months it seemed like they had shared more love than most people share in a life time.

One Thursday night Jessica was out with Tonks trying to calm her down a bit, she had made several attempts to go out with Remus but he did want to have anything to do with her. Jessica knew the reasons why Remus didn't want, always the same excuse, "I am too old", "I am a werewolf" and things like that, but Jessica couldn't help but to feel furious at him, because it was more than time for him to start living his life and stop feeling sorry for himself.

"Jessica a patronus," said Tonks urgently. "What do you reckon it's about?"

Jessica stomach turned with fear. When it got closer she recognized it was Sirius patronus, it simply said. "Return at once," Sirius voice sounded dim.

They quickly paid for their drink and went back to Grimmauld Place as fast as they could.

Remus was trying to reason with Sirius and Sirius was yelling.

"What is it?" Jessica asked .

"Voldemort led Harry to a trap," said Sirius sounding panicky.

"How do you know?" Tonks asked surprised.

"Snape came by to check if I was here," Sirius explained. "Because Harry shouted something like, _he's got padfoot where it is hidden_. Harry and Hermione went in the Forbbiden Forerst with Umbrigde and never came back, so it is easy to assume Harry went for my rescue," said Sirius sounding frustrated. "The only flaw is, I am here and not there, who knows what will be waiting for them when they get there."

"We should go at once," said Jessica firmly. "Shall we?"

"Remus, give me my wand back," Sirius roared. "I am going too."

Jessica then saw that Remus had a strong grip on Sirius wand. Before Remus reliazed what she was doing she got the wand and handed to Sirius.

Before Remus could protest Jessica said. "It's Harry we are talking about, we can't keep Sirius locked up in this house forever."

Sirius gave a small nod and said "Thank you."

They apparated at the Ministry lobby and they meet Kingslay there.

"I got a message from Snape, asking me to come rescue Harry," he said, while walking fast to the elevator. "Department of Myteries?" He asked.

"Yeah," Tonks replied.

Sirius was holding Jessica's hand tightly, she could feel her heart racing, she did not know what they were going to find. They got to the Department of Mysteries and most of the started running down the hall, Jessica was about to do the same when Sirius pulled her back.

"No matter what happens," he whispered. "Know that I love you."

They kissed, longer than they knew they should.

"We are both getting out of here," she said firmly. "With Harry by our side. Understood?"

He nodded and they ran to meet the other who were stuck at the Circular Room.

"Where do we go now?" asked Remus sound stressed.

"Lets start opening door and check them all," said Sirius eagerly.

"Where is he?" another voice joined them, it was Moody.

"Shhh," Jessica said, listening intently. They all stopped talking, they heard a scream behind one of the door and Jessica in a fraction of seconds yelled "_Confringo_" and the door blasted open.

It was the right place. A large rectangular room, stone benches ran all around the room and descended in steps towards a raised stone dais in a center of a pit, where a crumbling stone archway stood. They immediately saw Harry holding the orb, Neville badly injured laying on Bellatix foot.

Malfoy was the first to raise his wand towards them, but Tonks came forward and sent a Stunning spell at him. Every Death Easter in the room looked surprised giving them the advantage of start shooting spells first. Jessica noticed Harry safely diving out of the way.

Jessica started dueling Dolohov, it was the hardest thing she had to do in her life. Jets of light were flying in all directions, and she had to keep an eye not only in what Dolohov was doing but what was going on around her also.

From the corner of her eye she saw a Death Eater holding Harry by the neck.

"STUPEFY," she roared and Dolohov went flying out of the way.

She hurried to help Harry but two other Death Eater started aiming at her, keeping her from aiding Harry. Sirius came to help her.

"_Impedimenta_," said Jessica and the Death Eater was too slow to block, it paralyzed him.

Jessica heard a BANG, and she looked over to Sirius and cords bust from his wand and twisted themselves around the Death Eater, making it impossible for him to move.

"Nice one," said Jessica, going towards Harry.

"Learned it from Snivileus," he said lauging.

Dolohov was now trying to get the prophecy from Harry, but Sirius rammed him with his shoulders, making him fly out of the way. Dolohov and Sirius started dueling, Sirius was enjoying himself a bit too much, after months of hiding the battle was doing good to his soul, as strange as it sounds. Macnair came to duel with Jessica, she noticed Harry casting a body locking spell to Dolohov and Sirius forcing Harry's head out of the way of couple jet coming in their direction.

"_Expeliamu_s," Jessica disarmed Macnair. "_Incarcerous_," ropes wrapped around him.

Across the room Jessica saw Tonks falling from halfway up the stone steps, rolling down from stone seat to stone seat, Bellatrix stood at the top laughing madly. Anger rapidly grew inside Jessica, she went for Bellatrix. But Sirius yelled. "I got her, get Tonks out of here." And he dashed to meet Bellatrix

Jessica hesitated, but since Sirius was handling Bellatrix well she went to look how Tonks was doing, she ducked when she walked across Remus battling two Death Eaters. Jessica was a few feet away when a masked Death Eater shot a spell missing Jessica by inches.

With great frustration Jessica started dueling again, feeling overwhelmed with the amount of things going on around her. Harry was struggling with Malfoy, but Remus went to his aid, Sirius and Bellatrix was still dueling.

"_Protego_," Jessica blocked a stunning spell. She saw a pearly-white figure, and she knew the prophecy was lost.

Jessica successfully bewitched the Death Eater, putting him to sleep. She ran her eye around the room to find Sirius and saw Dumbledore instead, great relief came upon her and she went to get Tonks again.

The battle had died down with Dumbledore arrival. Tonks was unconscious when Jessica got to her.

"_Rennervate_," she tried to revive Tonks, but nothing happened. Before she could try another spell she felt something hit her back. Her body got rigid and she fell by Tonks.

Jessica felt horrified, she had a perfect view of Sirius dueling with Bellatrix. He was laughing at Bellatrix, and in that moment she knew he had led his guard down, she tried to scream but nothing came out. A jet of red light hit his chest.

Harry started going towards Sirisu and so did Dumbledore, Jessica tried to move using all the strenght in her, but couldn't move an inch. She saw Sirius body curve and sink through a veil hanging in an arch.

Her heart ripped open at that moment, tears started running freely down her face. Harry was still waiting, certain Sirius would arise from the other side of the arch, but Jessica knew better, Sirius was not going to return, it was a veil of death, Sirius was dead. She felt half of herself die.

Laying on the floor, unable to move, Jessica watched Harry yell for Sirius and struggle hard with Remus who grabbed him before he got the veil. Remus voice was breaking as he tried to tell Harry Sirius was dead.

"HE IS NOT DEAD," she heard Harry roar.

Jessica was sobbing even harder now, but no sound came out of her mouth. Jessica saw Moody crawling towards her, but before helping her he started trying to revive Tonks.

"Dumbledore has the Death Eater contained," he told her, still working on Tonks. "I am sorry about Sirius."

"SHE KILLED SIRIUS," Jessica heard Harry bellow. "SHE KILLED HIM I'LL KILL HER."

Moments later Remus came and got Jessica out of the body locking jinx. Jessica lauched herself on his lap and mourning loudly, sobbing as hard as she could. The pain inside was still growing, her heart seemed to have stopped.

"This is no use," aid Moody bitterly, Tonks still laying unconscious on the floor. "I will take her to St. Mungos."

CRACK. They were both gone.

"You need to get out of here," said Remus. But Jessica didn't move, just sobbed harder.

CRACK. Jessica and Remus apparated in her apartment, where her little brother was living.

"Jessica," he said in shock. Jessica was still launched into Remus legs, screaming in pain. "What happened?"

Remus picked Jessica up the floor, holding her on his arms, he took her to her bed.

"Sirius is gone," said Remus demonstrating a great amount of sorrow. "Iwill put her to sleep, and I will be back before she wakes up."

Remus bewitched Jessica, and she fell asleep.


	20. New Beginnings

When Jessica woke up, she felt heartache at once. She felt empty, and in that moment she had no desire to live, inside her she wished she could die, the same feeling of half empty hit her again. Remus was asleep in an arm chair in front of her. Jessica sit up and not only her heartached, but her whole body felt like she had been beatten, her stomach feeling extremely sick.

Slowly Remus opened his eyes and saw Jessica sitting up.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

Before she could answer she vomited. Remus quickly held her hair back and leaned her head forward.

"_Scourgify_" Remus cleaned up once she was done. "You should lay back down."

Jessica felt very weak so she agreed with him, silent tears were running down her cheek.

"Your mom is here," said Remus. "But I could put you back to sleep if you want."

She nodded. She did not want to see anybody.

The days that followed Jessica kept feeling sick, she slept most of the day, and reality was finally sinking in. Tonks was all better and she never left Jessica's bed side, her mom, brother and Remus would come and go various times during the day.

Even when she was awake she did not do a lot of talking, most of the time she would stay with her head sunk into her pillow crying, Tonks would sit by her and stroke her hair the whole time.

Jessica was still vomiting several times a day, but now she was used to it, so she had time to go to the toleit before she lost it. The only thing that got her out of bed was to go to the bathroom, and then was straight back to bed.

Remus was once again holding her hair while she knelt down the bathroom floor over the toilet, Tonks was leaning on the door frame saying encouraging words like, "it's alright, let it all out."

Jessica saw Molly arrive.

"How is she doing?" Molly asked

"Not good," Tonks replied. "This is all she does, she been vomiting and sleeping for days now."

Molly let an annoying giggle. Remus was helping Jessica to her feet.

"You are all amateurs," She stepped forward. "Move away from her Remus."

Jessica was really weak, when Remus let go of her she struggled to stay up, getting hold of the sink for support.

Molly started moving her wand around Jessica's stomach in small circles. White fog started getting out of the tip of her wand and slowly started turning blue. Jessica watched curiously as the blue fog started taking a shape, when it was clear to her she totally lost control of her legs and almost fell over, but Remus was now holding her with a big smile on his face. In front of Jessica's belly stood a shape of a fetus.

"Congratulations," said Molly excited. "It's a boy," Molly embraced Jessica with great love and whispered. "He lives, see? He lives."

Jessica started crying, but this time was out of joy. She felt a harmth inside her, her desire to live grew instantly inside her. Molly was right. Part of Sirius was alive, in his son. Jessica made the promise never to let her love for Sirius die, keeping at part of him alive as well.

As the days went by Jessica slowly started feeling that half that was dead inside her, come back. Her son saved her life, it was a miracle and Jessica felt honored to be carrying Sirius child inside her.

Every night before she went to sleep she said the words aloud. "He Lives."

THE END


End file.
